LSB July 2022 LR

LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
CLCSA Chair Catherine McMorrine (left), Legal Officer Holly McCoy and Project Officer Ippei Okazaki (right) receiving the Australian
Institute for Disaster Resilience Community Project Award SA 2021 from then Emergency Services Minister Vincent Tarzia
need help and support with when she contacts us.
NQWLS believes our services and communities
are strengthened by being united in purpose.”
Anne noted that the CLC sector is
better resourced now than it ever was in
the early days, however she raised concern
that challenges for vulnerable people are
changing and growing due to population
growth, increased social problems, climate
change, and living in a digital world which
all serve to create further pressures on
health, education and legal assistance.
“The CLC sector works hard to adapt and
meet the changing needs of the community and we
do an awesome job for those whom we can reach.
For those who are beyond our reach and who
cannot reach us, we must aim to do more and this
continues to be an enormous challenge for CLCs.
The RRRR network has the potential to strengthen
and unite CLCs and find new ways of reaching out
further than before. It is exciting to see the RRRR
Network re-establishing and energised.”
Holly McCoy is a Solicitor who worked
tirelessly on the Bushfire Community
Legal Program provided by the
Community Justice Services of South
Australia. She spent 18 months traveling
fortnightly to Kangaroo Island and a
handful of trips to the Yorke Peninsula,
post the 2019/2020 Black Summer
fires. The purpose was to deliver free
legal advice, information, referrals and
education to assist the community with
their relief and recovery efforts.
Holly now travels throughout South
Australia to bushfire high risk regional/rural
communities to deliver free legal education
and advice to assist communities with their
bushfire preparedness and resilience.
When asked about the challenges
faced by members of RRRR communities,
Holly cited the lack of public transport
and the distances people are required to
travel to access legal services and Courts
as a major barrier to accessing justice.
Whilst organisations do deliver outreach
services, they tend to be located in the
main township which is often inaccessible
to many people due to distance and
transportation issues.
COVID-19 has shown us how services
can utilise electronic service delivery such
as videoconferencing, however Holly
believes that service providers and Courts
may have become too reliant on such
delivery methods as many people in remote
RRRR areas experience unreliable (or no)
access to telecommunications or internet.
Holly is concerned that community
members are often unaware that a number
of services are available to them. Outreach
services are often ad hoc and poorly
advertised.
From a legal perspective, the lack of
access to appropriate legal services results
in matters escalating and becoming all
consuming, whereas with early intervention,
they could have been swiftly resolved or,
potentially, avoided all together. These
issues further compound (and/or are
compounded by) mental and physical
health, financial, and family difficulties.
Linda Ryle is Chairperson of the Board
of Directors, Aboriginal Family Legal
Service Southern Queensland (AFLSSQ).
She was born and raised in a small rural
community in Northern Queensland,
and is a proud Birrigubba and Kamilaroi
Woman. AFLSSQ is an Aboriginal Legal
Service, a family legal service.
Linda has a long history in Aboriginal
Affairs since the late 1990s (initially in
North Queensland). She had a tenured
engagement with Rural Regional and
Remote Aboriginal Communities,
particularly in the context of Professional
Business and Governance Support at both
the operational and organisational levels,
as well as collaborative and egalitarian
approaches to Community Development.
Linda also conducts research and
coaching in the area of Culturally
Principled Legal Practice.
AFLSSQ services a geographical area
equivalent to six times the size of the state
of Victoria. From Gladstone in the North
East across to the NT and SA borders,
South to the border of NSW. AFLSSQ
has a head office in Roma, Regional offices
in Toowoomba, Murgon/Cherbourg and
Beerwah, and they also support 9 satellite
offices (all RRRR community locations).
When asked about the challenges faced
by members of the communities they
serve in accessing justice, and the impact
of those challenges Linda remarked
on the sheer vastness of Queensland,
a decentralised State where 80.6% of
AFLSSQ clientele hail from Very Remote
locations. Indeed it was Linda who was
the catalyst for the inclusion of RRRR in
the name of our network – the fourth R
representing Very Remote communities,
because the experiences and challenges
faced by this cohort is very different to
less remote communities, thus deserving
its own recognition.
Linda described how First Nations
families have suffered horrific abuses and
injustices perpetrated by non First Nations
people and systems, since colonisation.
“First Nations families (and in particular
First Women) remain the most disadvantaged,
disregarded, misrepresented and demonised across
all sectors in Australia today. Incarceration is a
key element in the destruction of First Women
and their families – with their children then falling
into the care of the State.”
Linda referred to the Australian Law
Reform Commission Report Pathways to
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 13