An important Indigenous legal body is having to close doors due to a lack of funding. 

The Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) has announced it will suspend operations in 13 regional New South Wales local courts due to a lack of emergency federal funding. 

The ALS had requested $250 million to maintain current levels of service in seven states and territories ahead of the May budget, but the government has yet to commit to the funding. 

The ALS chief executive Karly Warner stated that the organisation is experiencing an “unprecedented crisis” due to the undervaluing of their services. 

The organisation's suspension from courts in Byron Bay, Eden, Forster, Junee, Lithgow, Moss Vale, Muswellbrook, Scone, Singleton, Temora, Tenterfield, West Wyalong, and Wauchope will be indefinite.

Some services in Queensland have already been suspended since April, and Warner fears the same may happen in NSW.

According to Warner, demand for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services in Australia has increased by up to 100 per cent since 2018, but funding from the Commonwealth has not reflected this. 

As a result, staff members are stretched across more areas, and more clients are left without help. 

Insiders say there is a need to prioritise the well-being of team members while providing high-quality, culturally safe support to clients and communities across the country. 

The ALS receives split funding from the NSW and federal governments, but the Commonwealth is largely responsible. 

The suspension will have “dire consequences” for some clients who rely on the ALS for help in family, criminal, care and protection law, as well as tenancy services. 

They will likely have to lean on legal help that lacks cultural safety or sensitivity, or have no support at all. 

Last week's federal Budget included a $99 million allocation to start up a First Nations Justice Package, which includes $13.5 million to legal services across Australia and $1 million to the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS). 

However, this is less than 6 per cent of the $250 million requested to support the seven branches represented by the NATSILS. 

A spokesperson for Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has stated that the government is committed to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to achieve better justice outcomes. 

The current National Legal Assistance Program ends in June 2025, but an independent review of the agreement will begin this year to examine the adequacy of funding and ensure the legal assistance sector is best equipped to deal with current and future challenges. 

Warner hopes that the services in NSW and Queensland will be quickly reinstated. She stated that while employees are passionate and dedicated to their work, the inadequacy of funding has forced many of them to seek better-paying jobs elsewhere.