Justicein_the_Australian_Leagal_System_for_Aboriginal_and_Torres_Strait_Islanders

Equality and justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) is today an integral part the fabric of Australian culture, however that has not always been the case. For many years after Australia was settled by the British and it was declared ‘ Terra Nullius’ all its citizens have been subject to a system of laws based upon British common law. This has been an ongoing source of conflict as the indigenous communities had, and to an extent still have, a system of law based on traditional customs and culture. In evaluating the effectiveness of the Australian legal system (ALS) in achieving justice for ATSI peoples, a number of measures will be considered; Community standards Resource efficiency Accessibility Protection of individual rights Equality Enforceability The ALS is both effective and ineffective in addressing community standards regarding the ATSI people. Since the displacement of these people after settlement numerous legislative acts have been established to reflect the way the community sees Indigenous Australians. Community standards have evolved over time. In 1967, a referendum was held to determine whether part of s51 and s127 of the constitution would be amended. Over 90% of the public voted for the changes and thus the constitution was amended. This is an example of the effectiveness of the ALS as the changes allowed laws to be made for the protection of ATSI peoples and allowed them to be counted in the census as wanted by the public. However, on the same token, the standards of the indigenous communities were not met as the referendum did not give them citizenship or the right to vote as desired. Resource allocation is inefficient. A sizeable percentage of ATSI people reside in rural or remote communities and are poorly served with the resource that people in urban and populated areas take for granted, which includes access to legal aid, healthcare, education, transport, rehabilitation programmes ect. The 2009 media article ‘Locking out Rehabilitation’ is an example of this as it discusses the climbing incarceration rates of ATSI people in remote areas due to alternative rehabilitation being unavailable. This is leading to unnecessary congestion in prisons. The ALS fails to be resource efficient as the cost of imprisonment in comparison to alternative rehabilitation is unnecessarily high. Accessibility is steadily becoming more efficient and effective with the introduction of mechanisms and programmes aimed at incorporating indigenous culture into the education system. Such scheme which make leaning of an Aboriginal language mandatory has been successfully tried in schools with large indigenous populations as discussed in the 2007 article ‘Aboriginal languages help more stay on’. By making aboriginal culture and heritage accessible, attendance rates and retention is improving, preventing ATSI people from becoming involved in criminal activity. This is both an effective educational programme and a practical means of reconciliation. The ALS has endeavoured to protect the individual rights of ATSI people through a variety of legislative acts which protect many areas land ownership and discrimination as a means of ensuring justice. The Anti-Discrimination act 1977 prohibits public acts of discrimination by making prejudice due to race, orientation, age, domestic status ect. unlawfuland punishable by the law. The purpose of this act is to protect the rights of ATSI people in areas such as education and the workplace to ensure equality. As law is binding on all of society this act is an effective means of protecting ATSI peoples. Also the Native Title Act 1993 acknowledges the right some ATSI people have to land from traditional laws and customs overturned with the declaration of terra nullius. This has assisted in protecting the rights to land and to traditional customs of the ATSI people. The ALS has struggled with widespread equality for the ATSI people and has thus far been unsuccessful. Inequalities in education and accessibility to basic needs are prominent and many. The 2007 media article ‘Aboriginal education ‘underfunded’ in NT’ outlines the poor state of the educational facilities in the Northern Territory where a large proportion of ATSI people are situated. Due to insufficient funding and resources as well as an initiative that ties welfare payments to school attendance schools are severely over crowded and education is suffering. The ATSI people attending these schools have been disadvantaged and have less than equal standard of education. Poor planning and inconsideration has resulted in standards of equality not being met by the ALS. There has been considerable improvement to the ALS in achieving justice for ATSI people since its establishment in Australia in 1966. As we can see community standards, accessibility to cultural heritage through compulsory education, protection of individual rights by reducing discrimination and acknowledging traditional rights are all effective areas of law in the achievement of justice. However, areas such as resource efficiency, inequality and the limitations the ALS has in enforcing decisions and achieving aims, shows a continued need for improvement before it can be concluded that the ALS is effective in achieving justice for the ATSI people.