First Nations

• Some justice for the people affected by Youpla/ACBF

  21st Mar 2024

  First Nations advocates have worked with the federal government for two years to help thousands of payers left with nothing after the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund, which masqueraded as an Aboriginal-owned organisation, collapsed. Mark Holden provides a timely update on Close the Gap Day.

• Inquiry into a Process to Review Bills for their Impact on First Nations Territorians

  18th Oct 2023

• Path to Treaty Bill 2023

  5th Apr 2023

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services – the key to closing the justice gap

  9th Feb 2023

  ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services were at the genesis of self-determination, they were the engine room for reform, and they are still the advocates and the protectors of the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,’ writes Jamie McConnachie.

• Coronial findings response: Greater cultural consideration and a therapeutic approach urgently needed in Victorian bail decisions

  30th Jan 2023

  A requirement that the police and the court must explicitly consider a person’s Indigenous status when making decisions in regards to bail and sentencing would help address the systemic failures highlighted today by Coroner Simon McGregor’s investigation into the death of Indigenous woman, Veronica Nelson.

• Real change and deep listening: In honour of Cassius Turvey

  17th Nov 2022

  Rowena MacDonald, the ALA’s Tasmanian President, spoke in Launceston on Friday 4 November 2022 at a vigil to mark the death of First Nations teenager, Cassius Turvey. She called for urgent change and an end to ‘the racist and discriminatory practices that are still entrenched in our police and criminal justice systems’. These were her words.