 | |
| Major practice areas | Criminal law Civil law Custody Notification Service |
|---|---|
| Date founded | 2006 |
| Website | www |
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) is a not-for-profit legal service which provides criminal law and civil law services to Aboriginal people and their families across the Northern Territory of Australia. Since 2019, it has operated the NT Custody Notification Service, whereby they are notified by NT Police when Indigenous Australians are taken into police custody.
In 1972 the first Aboriginal Legal Aid office in the Northern Territory was established in Darwin, for provision of services to Aboriginal people in the Top End, which led to the establishment of the North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (NAALAS) in 1973. [1] Around the same time, Neville Perkins and others were setting up the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (CAALAS), which later became part of NAAJA. [2]
In 1985 the Katherine Regional Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (KRALAS) was established for the Katherine region, and in 1996 the MIWATJ Aboriginal legal Service (MALS) was created to service East Arnhem Land. [1]
NAAJA was established in February 2006 as an amalgamation of NAALAS, KRALAS and MALS. [3] The first NAAJA Chairperson was Eddie Cubillo. [4]
NAAJA received a National Crime Prevention Award in 2012 for its Throughcare program, which works to reduce rates of reoffending in the Northern Territory. [4]
NAAJA's Principal Legal Officer David Woodroffe received the 2017 Law Award from the Australian Human Rights Commission. [5]
On 1 January 2018 NAAJA began operations in Central Australia (Alice Springs). [1]
NAAJA is the largest legal service in the Northern Territory, with more than 170 full-time staff, of whom 43% are Aboriginal, and which includes 63 solicitors as of July 2019 [update] . It has offices in Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek, Nhulunbuy and Alice Springs. [1] [6] It delivers criminal and civil law services throughout the Northern Territory. Its key areas of service are: [7]
The Custody Notification Service has been in operation since January 2019, after the Commonwealth government had announced three years of funding for NAAJA to administer the service in the NT. [8]
Priscilla Atkins, who had been CEO for many years, was sacked at the end of 2022, and was suing for wrongful dismissal in 2023. In November 2023 the position was vacant again after two acting CEOs had resigned before the end of their terms. [9]
The Northern Territory is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Australia to the west, South Australia to the south, and Queensland to the east. To the north, the territory looks out to the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria, including Western New Guinea and other islands of the Indonesian archipelago.
Alice Springs is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; the third largest settlement after Darwin and Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd, wife of the telegraph pioneer Sir Charles Todd. Known colloquially as "The Alice" or simply "Alice", the town is situated roughly in Australia's geographic centre. It is nearly equidistant from Adelaide and Darwin.
The Northern Territory Police Force is the police body that has legal jurisdiction over the Northern Territory of Australia. This police service has 1,607 police members made up of 83 senior sergeants, 228 sergeants, 912 constables, 220 auxiliaries, and 64 Aboriginal Community Police Officers. The rest of the positions are members of commissioned rank and inoperative positions. It also has a civilian staff working across the NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services.
The Don Dale Youth Detention Centre is a facility for juvenile detention in the Northern Territory, Australia, located in Berrimah, east of Darwin. It is a detention centre for male and female juvenile delinquents. The facility is named after Don Dale, a former Member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1983 to 1989 and one-time Minister for Correctional Services.
Kalkarindji is a town and locality in the Northern Territory of Australia, located on the Buntine Highway about 554 kilometres (344 mi) south of the territory capital of Darwin and located about 460 kilometres (290 mi) south of the municipal seat in Katherine.
Crime in the Northern Territory is managed by the Northern Territory Police, the territory government's Department of the Attorney-General and Justice and Territory Families.
Aboriginal deaths in custody is a political and social issue in Australia. It rose in prominence in the early 1980s, with Aboriginal activists campaigning following the death of 16-year-old John Peter Pat in 1983. Subsequent deaths in custody, considered suspicious by families of the deceased, culminated in the 1987 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC).
The Local Court of the Northern Territory is one of two levels of court in the Northern Territory of Australia. It has jurisdiction in civil disputes up to A$250,000, and in criminal cases in the trial of summary offences, and also deals with preliminary matters for indictable offences which are then heard by the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. There are local courts held in Darwin, Alice Springs, Katherine, Tennant Creek, and some "bush courts" in remote locations.
The Northern Territory National Emergency Response, also known as "The Intervention" or the Northern Territory Intervention, and sometimes the abbreviation "NTER" was a package of measures enforced by legislation affecting Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, which lasted from 2007 until 2012. The measures included restrictions on the consumption of alcohol and pornography, changes to welfare payments, and changes to the delivery and management of education, employment and health services in the Territory.
A community legal centre (CLC) is the Australian term for an independent not-for-profit organisation providing legal aid services, that is, provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. They provide legal advice and traditional casework for free, primarily funded by federal, state and local government. Working with clients who are mostly the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in Australian society, they also work with other agencies to address related problems, including financial, social and health issues. Their functions may include campaigning for law reform and developing community education programs.
Indigenous Australians are both convicted of crimes and imprisoned at a disproportionately higher rate in Australia, as well as being over-represented as victims of crime. As of September 2019, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners represented 28% of the total adult prisoner population, while accounting for 2% of the general adult population. Various explanations have been given for this over-representation, both historical and more recent. Federal and state governments and Indigenous groups have responded with various analyses, programs and measures.
Punishment in Australia arises when an individual has been accused or convicted of breaking the law through the Australian criminal justice system. Australia uses prisons, as well as community corrections. When awaiting trial, prisoners may be kept in specialised remand centres or within other prisons.
Daguragu, previously also known as Wattie Creek by the Gurindji people as it is situated on a tributary of the Victoria River, is a locality in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located about 551 kilometres (342 mi) south of the territory capital of Darwin and located about 460 kilometres (290 mi) south-west of the municipal seat in Katherine. It is around 8 km (5.0 mi) north-west of Kalkarindji. Daguragu community is situated on Aboriginal land held under perpetual title; it was also formerly a local government area until its amalgamation into the Victoria Daly Shire on 1 July 2008.
The Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) (ALS), known also as Aboriginal Legal Service, 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 and based in the inner-Sydney suburb of Redfern. It now has branches across NSW and ACT, with its head office in Castlereagh Street, Sydney and a branch office in Regent Street, Redfern.
Juvenile detention in the Northern Territory is administered by Territory Families, since a departmental reorganisation following the Labor victory at the August 2016 Northern Territory general election. Juvenile detention is mostly operated through two facilities - the Alice Springs Juvenile Holding Centre in Alice Springs, and the Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre in eastern Darwin. These had previously been administered by the Department of Correctional Services. A juvenile is a child between the age of 10 and 17.
Priscilla "Cilla" Atkins, is a prominent Aboriginal leader, advocate and television producer. Atkins was the Chief Executive Officer of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), the largest law firm in the Northern Territory of Australia.
A Custody Notification Service (CNS), sometimes referred to as a Custody Notification Scheme, is a 24-hour legal advice and support telephone hotline for any Indigenous Australian person brought into custody, connecting them with lawyers from the Aboriginal legal service operating in their state or territory. It is intended to reduce the high number of Aboriginal deaths in custody by counteracting the effects of institutional racism. Legislation mandating the police to inform the legal service whenever an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person is brought into custody is seen as essential to ensure compliance and a clear record of events. Where Custody Notification Services have been implemented, there have been reductions in the numbers of Aboriginal deaths in custody.
St John Ambulance Northern Territory is a non-profit, charitable organisation providing first aid services and training, urgent care, patient transport, ambulance and other medical services in the Northern Territory. It has served as the primary ambulance service in the Northern Territory since 1966. These services are provided through a combination of paid and volunteer staff. St John NT is funded through a combination of government funding, corporate and private donations and user pays services.
The COVID-19 pandemic in the Northern Territory is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
Charles Arnold Walker, for cultural reasons known as Kumanjayi Walker since his death, was a Warlpiri man who was shot and killed by police while resisting arrest in the remote Aboriginal Australian community of Yuendumu, Northern Territory, in November 2019. Walker stabbed Constable Zachary Rolfe with a pair of scissors. Rolfe subsequently fatally shot him and was charged with murder three days later, but was acquitted in March 2022. Thousands of people rallied in Alice Springs in the days following the attempted arrest, and further protests followed in capital cities around Australia. After the acquittal of Rolfe a campaign entitled "Justice for Walker" has continued.