Appearance before Inquiry into the High Level of First Nations People in Custody in NSW

06/11/2020

The Chair of the New South Wales Bar Association’s First Nations Committee, Tony McAvoy SC, appeared last week on behalf of the Association before the NSW Parliamentary Select Committee on the High Level of First Nations People in Custody and Oversight and Review of Deaths in Custody.

The Association’s recommendations to the inquiry include that the Committee:

a. inform itself and build upon the work of previous reports and inquiries into First Nations Peoples in custody;

b. need not wait until its reporting date of March 2021 to advocate to the Parliament that it respond to and implement recommendations of the ALRC’s Pathways to Justice Report;

c. advocate to the NSW Government to voluntarily adopt a justice target to end the over-imprisonment of Aboriginal people within 10 years in NSW;

d. advocate for the NSW Government to commit to funding the Walama Court to operate on a trial basis for five years, at a cost of approximately $3.1 million each year;

e. advocate for the NSW Government to commit to funding community‐led justice reinvestment at a total of $11.1 million over four years;

f. advocate to the NSW Government for one or more Aboriginal liaison officers to be based at the Coroner’s Court.

The Hansard of the Chair’s appearance is available here.

The Association’s primary and supplementary submissions, prepared by the Association’s Joint Working Party on the Over-representation of Indigenous People in Custody in NSW, can be viewed here.

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