Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service
| Major practice areas | Criminal law Civil law Custody Notification Service |
|---|---|
| Key people | Nerita Waight |
| Date founded | 1973 |
| Website | www |
The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) is a non-profit legal service which provides criminal law, family law, child protection and civil law services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Victoria, Australia.[1][2][3] VALS also provides community justice programs to help clients and community address the factors that lead to them coming into contact with the justice system.[4] VALS is a Community legal centre, and a member of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services.[5]
VALS relies on government funding for a significant portion of its funding and has often argued for greater funding.[6][7]
History
VALS was established in 1973 as a community controlled Co-operative Society,[8] three years after the first Aboriginal legal service, Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) was established in 1970[9] as part of a movement in the 1970s to establish Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, which also included health services.[10][11]
Custody Notification Service
VALS runs a Custody Notification System which requires Victoria Police to notify VALS within 1 hour every time an Aboriginal person in Victoria is taken into police custody.[12] Since October 2019, this requirement is legislated under the Crimes Act 1958.[12]
The Custody Notification Service operates 24/7, manages relationships with over 300 police stations and received over 11,000 notifications in the 2017-18 financial year.[13]
Legal services
VALS has several legal practices. They are Criminal law, Civil and Human Rights law, Family law, Wirraway Specialist Legal and Litigation Practice, and Balit Ngulu.[1][14][15]
Balit Ngulu is a legal practice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.[15] Balit Ngulu was first established in 2017, but closed a bit over a year later due to a lack of government funding.[16][2] Balit Ngulu was relaunched in 2021 after the Victorian Government committed $3.4m.[3]
Advocacy
VALS advocates to governments for legal policy changes that aim to improve outcomes for Aboriginal people that come into contact with the justice system and to prevent that contact in the first place.[17] This advocacy is often done in partnership with other Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and Aboriginal peak bodies.[17]
VALS has noted that there has been growing community demand for their advocacy work as a result of the Black Lives Matter protests around the globe in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd.[17][18]
In response to this demand, VALS established Wirraway, a specialist legal and litigation practice.[19] Wirraway undertakes civil litigation in instances where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been discriminated against by public sector workers, such as instances of police misconduct.[20]
Much of VALS' advocacy is focused on ending the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in custody.[21]
VALS is one of a number of Aboriginal organisations advocating for the decriminalisation of public drunkenness and public drinking.[22][23][24]
In 2021, VALS criticised Facebook for blocking their content from viewers in relation to the Australia Government's proposed new content usage laws.[25]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, VALS regularly criticised the use of policing response.[26][27][28][29] It also criticised the Victorian Government's use management of the pandemic in prisons.[30][31]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "About VALS". Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "'Doors shut in their face': Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service shuts down youth service". 28 September 2018 – via www.abc.net.au.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Supporting Aboriginal Children And Young People | Premier of Victoria". www.premier.vic.gov.au.
- ↑ "Review of the Family Law System" (PDF). Australian Law Reform Commission.
- ↑ "NATSILS". National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services.
- ↑ Lee, Miki Perkins and Jane (25 March 2015). "Aboriginal legal services call on Federal Government to reverse funding cuts". The Sydney Morning Herald.
- ↑ Knowles, Rachael (21 May 2021). "Victorian ALS forced to freeze client intake due to lack of funding".
- ↑ "About VALS". Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.
- ↑ "Our History". Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited.
- ↑ "Aboriginal community controlled health organisations address health equity through action on the social determinants of health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia". BMC Public Health. 20 (1): 1859. 4 December 2020. doi:10.1186/s12889-020-09943-4. PMC 7716440 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 33276747 Check|pmid=value (help) – via BioMed Central. - ↑ "A History Of The Victorian Aboriginal Health Services" (PDF). Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service Submission to the Inquiry into Victoria's Criminal Justice System" (PDF). Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service – via Parliament of Victoria.
- ↑ "Custody Notification Officers". Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.
- ↑ "Specialist & Legal Litigation". Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Balit Ngulu". Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.
- ↑ Perkins, Miki (5 June 2018). "'I'm a lost cause, aren't I?' Aboriginal legal service faces closure". The Age.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 "BUILDING BACK BETTER - Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service COVID-19 Recovery Plan" (PDF). Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.
- ↑ "MUST LISTEN: We Chat 1:1 With Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service's Nerita Waight Ahead of Saturday's Protest".
- ↑ "Litigation aims to reduce Indigenous incarceration - Law Institute of Victoria".
- ↑ "Specialist & Legal Litigation". Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.
- ↑ Koob, Simone Fox (20 January 2021). "Indigenous kids nine times more likely to be in custody than non-Indigenous children in Victoria". The Age.
- ↑ Eddie, Rachel (15 July 2021). "Public drinking could be allowed in Melbourne's inner-north". The Age.
- ↑ Croxon, Elspeth Kernebone Natalie (19 February 2021). "Victoria decriminalises public drunkenness in 'important step' towards justice for Tanya Day". Bendigo Advertiser.
- ↑ Smit, Sarah (4 December 2020). "Public drunkenness to become health-focused response in new Victorian legislation".
- ↑ Clun, Liam Mannix, Rachel (18 February 2021). "'Deeply unethical': Royal Children's Hospital, Neighbourhood Watch Victoria hit by Facebook ban". The Sydney Morning Herald.
- ↑ "Millions of dollars in fines for breaching Australia's COVID rules haven't been paid". SBS News.
- ↑ Sadler, Denham (7 August 2021). "Almost all Covid-19 fines remain unpaid". The Saturday Paper.
- ↑ Waight, Nerita; Axleby, Cheryl; Moore, Roxanne; Mejia-Canales, David (2 January 2021). "COVID-19: a missed opportunity to reimagine the justice system for our people". Current Issues in Criminal Justice. 33 (1): 19–26. doi:10.1080/10345329.2021.1885899 – via Taylor and Francis+NEJM.
- ↑ "COVID-19 has left the courts with a backlog that could take years to overcome". Crikey. 14 January 2021.
- ↑ Sadler, Denham (12 June 2021). "Delays in vaccination of prisoners". The Saturday Paper – via www.pressreader.com.
- ↑ Jacks, Simone Fox Koob, Timna (5 October 2021). "Almost 40 prisoners infected as COVID-19 spreads to five Victorian jails". The Age.
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