Indigenous Incarceration and the Northern Territory Webinar

Over two years on from the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, participants who joined the Law Council’s Indigenous Incarceration webinar heard that several key recommendations are yet to be implemented.

Over 200 people from across the country listened to panelists, David Woodroffe, principal legal officer of NAAJA and president of the Aboriginal Lawyers’ Association of the Northern Territory, Olga Havnen, advocate and CEO of Darwin’s Danila Dilba Health Service, and Mick Gooda, prominent advocate for the rights of First Nations Australians for the past 30 years, call for State and Territory Governments to listen and engage more with the Aboriginal community.

While the panel, chaired by Law Council President, Pauline Wright, acknowledged that there had been an overall reduction in the numbers of children in detention in the Northern Territory, First Nations children were still overrepresented in the justice system. Read more.

• Watch the webinar here. 
   

Advocacy

Inquiries and consultations as of 24 August 2020. 

• Interest rate payable on fidelity fund claims, Legal Services Council.

• News media bargaining code, Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.

• Designs Amendment (Advisory Council on Intellectual Property Response) Bill 2020, IP Australia.

• Refresh of the Commissioner's Interpretation Statement: Housing, Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.

• Refresh of the Commissioner's Interpretation Statement: Public Benevolent Institutions, Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.

• Major reforms to the Foreign Investment Review Framework, The Treasury.

• Insurance Inquiry, Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman

• Changes to the quantum of costs allowable to legal practitioners under each court’s scale of costs, Joint Costs Advisory Committee. 

• Review of AFP Powers, Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.

• Phase 2 of the Review of the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 (Cth) Act, National Indigenous Australians Agency.

• A new National Disability Strategy – Stage 2 consultations, Department of Social Services.

• An Investigation into the effectiveness of ATO communications of taxpayers' rights to complain, review and appeal, Inspector-General of Taxation.

• Review into the Framework of Religious Exemptions in Anti-discrimination Legislation, Australian Law Reform Commission.

• Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

• Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, Royal Commission. 

• Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), Attorney-General's Department.

News and Media 

Media releases and statements:

• Over two years since NT Royal Commission and there has been limited progress for young Indigenous people, 20 August 2020. 
• ASIO Guidelines: room for further improvement, 20 August 2020.

​Key coverage:

• New ASIO guidelines do not address key concerns, LCA says, Lawyers Weekly, 21 August 2020. 
• ‘Over 2 years and still limited progress for young Indigenous Australians', Lawyers Weekly, 21 August 2020. 
• Australian Capital Territory votes to raise age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, The Guardian, 20 August 2020. 
• Lawyers fret over checks on spies, The Australian, 20 August 2020
• New Law Council head: 'The culture of silence must be eliminated', Sydney Morning Herald, 14 August 2020. 

Events

September

• 15 September 2020 - ILS International Law and Practice Course 2020 Lecture Three
  Host: International Law Section
  Time: 5.00pm - 6.30pm AEST
  Location: Webinar via Zoom

October

• 20 October 2020 - ILS International Law and Practice Course 2020 Lecture Four
  Host: International Law Section
  Time: 5.00pm - 6.30pm AEST
  Location: Webinar via Zoom