The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (QLD) Ltd was a joint winner last night in the “Partnership” category of the 2021 Queensland Reconciliation Awards for our work with key partners in delivering the Northern Peninsula Area Licensing Muster Initiative.
We would like to extend our congratulations also to key partners involved in the initiative – Northern Peninsula Area Justice Services Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation (NPA Community Justice Group) and Queensland Police Service (Bamaga Station).
The award is a great credit to our team up in the Torres Strait and NPA regions and in particular Annabelle Craft (our Prevention, Intervention and CLE Officer)– whose professionalism and hard work was a key driver of the partnership initiative.
We’d also like to acknowledge C’Zarke Maza our Regional Manager in the NPA and Torres Strait regions, who first raised the challenge surrounding unlicensed driving charges in the regions with the executive – which was then taken up at the departmental level by Shane Duffy our CEO. Whilst with departmental support the wheels were put in motion, it would have been easy for the initiative to grind to a halt – but with Annabelle at the steering wheel, such was never going to happen.
The Northern Peninsula Area Licensing Muster Initiative is a justice reinvestment strategy that has been providing cross-agency, holistic, evidence-based, proactive, and culturally safe support to the five communities of the NPA around licensing, registration, and identity documents since 2019.
The initiative aims to reduce unnecessary contact that Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience with the criminal justice system related to driving and vehicle related offending. Such contact often leads to offenders being sent to correctional facilities located thousands of kilometres away from their community.The initiative arose through prolonged observation of the high numbers of community members facing court action and punishment for non-violent driving-related offences, as well as social and economic exclusion. It appeared that many community members lacked sufficient or consistent primary identity documentation, immediately precluding them from accessing the services and opportunities many Australians take for granted.
Congratulations to Annabelle, the team and all partners involved. This initiative is a great example of the targeted impact justice reinvestment strategies can have on addressing the over-representation and unnecessary contact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience in the justice system.
To read more on the success of this program visit:
The annual Law Week Walk was held on the 18th of May and the ATSILS Maroochydore team were out in force early at Cotton Tree on the Sunshine Coast to take part.The team enjoyed hitting the pavement to support a good cause alongside colleagues from the legal fraternity including His Honour Judge Long of the District Court and Nambour Magistrates Court Registrar (and sometimes Acting Magistrate) Andrew Walker.
Below is a picture of the team Steph, Luke, Rod, Tim, Donna, Phoebe and Jordy, and Jordy’s daughter Elsie who was clearly the youngest participant by at least a couple of decades!
A great effort by Team Maroochydore.
Out in our Ipswich office, Regional Manager Kevin Rose invites local elders & respected persons to speak to our Ipswich team at the end of every staff meeting.
Making sure the local community has a voice and staying in touch with grassroots people is vital to informing our cultural proficiency and ensuring our legal service delivery is responsive to local community needs.
Well done Kevin and all the team in Ipswich.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (QLD) LTD – ATSILS (QLD) regrets informing our clients, communities, and partners that today our Facebook page has been restricted by Facebook as part of their decision to block publishers and users in Australia from viewing or sharing news articles. We are working to have the page reinstated and believe this is only a temporary measure.
The snap decision by Facebook today aims to put pressure on the Federal Government over proposed new laws that would force tech companies to pay news companies for content. Unfortunately, their broad action has seen many organizations beyond news publishers inadvertently ‘caught in the net’ of restricted sites. This includes our National peak body (NATSILS), legal services in other states, a range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander media, health and community services, key domestic and family prevention campaigns, and more.
It is deeply concerning that during a global pandemic and at a time where our communities are facing unprecedented health, legal, and human rights issues, that we have been censored along with the many other affected organisations that share critical emergency, health and legal resources on Facebook’s platform.
Facebook is an important part of our communication and engagement strategy with communities and partner organisations and we hope to rectify the situation as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience and encourage everyone to visit our website, Twitter and LinkedIn pages for ATSILS updates in the interim.
Web: www.atsils.org.au
Twitter: www.twitter.com/atsils
LinkedIn: www.linkedIn.com/company/atsils
For more information on this issue:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-18/facebook-news-ban-what-just-happened-post-zuckerberg/13166710
NPA Licensing Muster – (held in conjunction with the Licensing Mob)
Bamaga – (18th of August at 8am – 4pm)
Licence Muster events provide remote communities with access to a range of licensing, registration and ID services! Whether you need help with your registration & licence renewals, photo ID cards or you need a to sort out a SPER debt, there will be a deadly team of cross agency professionals there to help you!
The NPA Licensing Muster Initiative is a cross-agency collaborative initiative of the following:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (ATSILS)
Queensland Police Service
NPA Community Justice Group
Licensing Mob (Department of Transport and Main Roads)
NPA Family and Community Services
View Event Flyer:
The NPA Licensing Muster Initiative is a cross-agency collaborative initiative of the following:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services QLD (ATSILS)
Queensland Police Service
NPA Community Justice Group
Licensing Mob (Department of Transport and Main Roads)
NPA Family and Community Services.
Queensland Police Service
NPA Community Justice Group
Licensing Mob (Department of Transport and Main Roads)
NPA Family and Community Services.
Following the recent events and widespread/global coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement, the organisation has been in receipt of many donations and messages of support for the work we do for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and their families in Queensland.
For this we are very grateful and would like to sincerely thank each individual donor.
Your kind contribution will be utilised in the following ways:
- Care packages for clients in our Throughcare program which assists clients coming out of the criminal justice system to re-integrate into mainstream society – examples of items in a package include food items and clothing;
- Community Legal education services – creating awareness and education programs for our community across the state covering topical issues faced in each region and informing the community of their rights within the criminal justice system;
- Public sector monitoring services – monitoring the progress of implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody as well as ongoing Deaths in custody matters;
- Other day to day case costs and client support services provided by our offices across the state.
A full accounting for the utilisation of funds will be posted online at the end of the financial year 2020/2021.
Thank you again for your generous support.
Shane Duffy
Chief Executive Officer
SPER orders are continuing but SPER can delay payments or delay participation in programs like work and development orders.
SPER won’t take new enforcement action if they know people really can’t pay or do orders.
If you need to delay payments or work orders, you can ask SPER on their hotline 1300 365 635 or visit the website: qld.gov.au/sper.
You can also call ATSILS on 1800 012 255 for help with talking to SPER.
It is still a good idea to keep on top of your debt if you can pay. You can still make payments online and set up a payment plan by calling SPER on 1300 365 635 or by going on the website qld.gov.au/sper.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (QLD) LTD (ATSILS) advises that all pre court and court circuits into the Torres Strait Islands, Northern Peninsula Area, Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape Regions have been suspended immediately due to the potential health vulnerability of our people in remote communities.
ATSILS (QLD) is committed to supporting efforts from all levels of government to reduce the spread of COVID-19 to communities. This decision to suspend service in these regions is a critical response that aligns with the Australian Government’s – National Indigenous Australians Agency’s advice, to carefully balance community needs with the public health implications of any travel.
In addition to travel restrictions to our remote communities, ATSILS will also be looking to limit travel by staff to and from communities in other regions of the state (including urban and regional) for non-essential purposes, where options such as tele/videoconference or postponement are reasonable alternatives. In addition, pre-arranged events requiring people to travel to or from communities will be deferred indefinitely. Several remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are also starting to restrict access to their community for non-essential travel.
CEO Shane Duffy said, “ATSILS will continue to provide essential services with increased caution to protect staff and the community of which we service from the potential spread of COVID-19. We have a response plan in place to increase protection for our staff, clients and communities and are continually implementing business continuity arrangements to minimise disruption to service delivery.”
In line with the advice from the Australian Government, the benefits of continuing delivery of services, needs to be balanced with managing the risk of potentially spreading the virus within the community.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service will continue to monitor this rapidly evolving situation related to COVID-19 and update staff, clients, community and stakeholders of any further service delivery adjustments accordingly.
For further information regarding access to legal services during this time please contact an ATSILS office in your region: https://atsils.org.au/contact/
Email: info@atsils@org.au
Call: 1800 012 255 – Free call 24/7 for urgent criminal law matters.
Media Contact for Mr Shane Duffy: Joshua.herd@atsils.org.au
What’s the best way to engage remote community residents with their superannuation?
Break down some of the barriers to access and bring your services to them!
That’s what QSuper did when it spent a week with community peoples up in the Northern Peninsula Area (located at the top tip of Cape York, Queensland), on January 20th-24th, in partnership with ICAN financial counsellors, the Indigenous financial inclusion team at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand and lawyers from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (ATSILS).
View Article:
https://ican.org.au/ican-teams-up-with-qsuper-for-npa-community-week/?utm_source=ICAN+E-News+February+2020&utm_campaign=E-News&utm_medium=email&fbclid=IwAR1niFiZ6Z0cE78jO0W4eZFYdBUvkYpf9qbQrQsSsXtRDoS8xOIA7ce7p-M