Senator HOGG (7:29 PM) —I will speak on the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit report No.403, Access of Indigenous Australians to law and justice services. I serve on this committee in this parliament, and I must say that it has been one of the more difficult inquiries in which I have participated.

It became very clear throughout the conduct of this inquiry that the resources available to Indigenous people are far below those that are necessary to service the needs of the people. I also felt that throughout the inquiry and post the inquiry that there was a frustration in the sense that some of the people who appeared before us and some who have communicated with us since the inquiry were sick and tired of being inquired into. The clear solution to the Indigenous community receiving proper legal representation is to give them adequate funding. It is not a matter of how deep one’s pockets are or how deep the well is; it is primarily and essentially a system that is currently underfunded. That fact was recognised unanimously in that unanimous report.

By way of outline, the report states:

It went on to look at where the first need is within the Indigenous community, and it clearly concerns those who find themselves in criminal circumstances. So they are prioritised and they receive the first bite of the cherry, if you like, of the funding that is available under these various legal service groups. The report notes that ATSILSs operate in a climate of effectively static funding and increasing demand. That is a major problem because there is increasing demand for the service but there is effectively static funding. Whilst the tender process was going on in respect of the ATSILSs during the inquiry, there was no evidence to convince me at least—and I presume a number of other members of the committee—that that was going to be the panacea and that would resolve the problem of funding. Let us face it, the government have had a long time to correct this problem and to address an issue that goes to the very heart and soul of many remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The report goes on:

Of course, as I said, that prioritisation then takes representation away from other areas, particularly representation of women who are facing domestic violence, and that is just clearly one of the most important areas that is missing out at this stage. The report states:

It further states:

So there is this act of tension in the Indigenous community between sufficient funding for criminal matters and sufficient funding for civil and family law matters. Those areas, which many of us take for granted, are being ignored purely and simply because of a lack of funding. One understands the frustration that comes out in the Indigenous community when they see a committee of the parliament yet again inquiring into their needs for legal representation. And legal representation is a fundamental basic right, I believe, in our society today. Whilst one cannot attribute blame to the people who are the victims in this case, many of them are victims because of circumstances that we have imposed upon them over a long period.

From information provided to us by the New South Wales Legal Aid Commission, the cost of incarceration is in the order of $66,000 per person per year. That cost is borne by the community at large. The argument was put to us that there needs to be a great deal of prevention in some of these Indigenous communities to ensure that this cost is not being borne unnecessarily by the rest of the community—in other words, that a dose of prevention is infinitely better than the cure. The Western Australian legal aid commission put a very succinct statement to us regarding the cost of incarceration. They said:

Further on, they said that there were two types of costs associated with the increased incarceration rates in the system. First was the cost of the criminal justice system and second was the financial cost of incarceration. That is where the cost which was given to us by the New South Wales Legal Aid Commission comes in. I will quote directly from the report:

So there is a spin-off from the incarceration: the exposing of young children to risk of being put into state care or juvenile detention centres. This was clearly evidenced to the committee in its inquiry. Quoting again from the New South Wales Legal Aid Commission submission to the inquiry:

Clearly, there is a cost associated with the problems caused by the lack of access to proper legal representation by Indigenous people in Australia. Surely the government can find a way to make more funding available to target areas which are currently not even being addressed in either civil or family law.

It really is a blight on our society that a report such as this has to be delivered in this parliament. Furthermore, it is equally a frustration for those Indigenous people who cannot access proper legal representation in civil and family matters. Indigenous women, who are playing a leading role in trying to reform some of the excesses that might occur in some communities, do not have access to proper representation. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.