Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT)

The Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) or ALS is a community-run organisation in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, founded in 1970 to provide legal services to Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders. The service was Australia’s first free legal service, setting the model for community legal aid and Aboriginal services Australia-wide. There are now legal services all across Australia.

History

In 1970, Aboriginal activists and lawyers, including Paul Coe established the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) in Redfern, a suburb of Sydney.[1] From its outset, it was staffed by volunteers who provided free legal advice and representation to the Aboriginal people of inner Sydney in response to rising incidences of harassment and indiscriminate arrests of Aboriginal people, abuse and intimidation.[2][3] J. H. Wooten, then a Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales and later a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, assisted in establishing the service and writing grant applications for funding.[4]

In 1971, the service received government funding to provide a full-time solicitor, a field officer and a secretary, and the service was able to open a shop-front in Redfern. The Aboriginal Legal Service was formed into an unincorporated association. The involvement of Aboriginal people in both management and service delivery was critical to its acceptance among the community. The service elected to its board and employed as field officers leaders from diverse Aboriginal communities to ensure that the delivery of Aboriginal legal services was culturally appropriate.[5]

In 1991, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report recommended that Aboriginal Legal Services engage in research in law reform as well as the provision of legal services.

Modern era

In 2006, the six Aboriginal Legal Services located in NSW and ACT were amalgamated in response to the funding crisis initiated by the Howard government which had abolished the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in 2003 and instead introduced a tender process for the provision of legal aid to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

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References
  1. "Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited". Archived from the original on 15 October 2014. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  2. Noone, Mary Anne; Tomsen, Stephen (2006), Lawyers in conflict : Australian lawyers and legal aid, Federation Press, ISBN 978-1-86287-616-3
  3. Jon Faine (November 1993). Lawyers in the Alice: Aboriginals and whitefellas' law (3 ed.). Sydney: Federation Press. pp. 14–21. ISBN 978-1-86287-115-1.
  4. Wootten, J. H. "ABORIGINAL LEGAL SERVICE." (1974)
  5. Potter Jr, Charles E. "Poverty law practice: the Aboriginal Legal Service in New South Wales." Sydney Law Review, 7 (1973): 237

Further reading

M. Chapman, “Aboriginal Legal Service: A Black Perspective,” in D. Neal (ed.), On Tap, Not on Top: Legal Centres in Australia 1972–1982 (Legal Service Bulletin, Melbourne, 1984)

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