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 Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

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 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 ...

by counteracting the effects of

institutional racism Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, health ...

. Legislation mandating the police to inform the legal service whenever an Aboriginal or

Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often grouped ...

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. The implementation of a CNS in all Australian states and territories was recommendation no. 224 of the 339 recommendations of the 1991 Australian

Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) (1987–1991), also known as the Muirhead Commission, was a Royal Commission appointed by the Australian Government in October 1987 to Federal Court judge James Henry Muirhead, ...

report, but by 2018, only the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...

and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

had such a service mandated by legislation. Many of the other states have followed, since the offer of three years of funding by the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

in October 2016. , only

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

and

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

do not have a legislated CNS in place.

Background

The implementation of a CNS in all Australian states and territories was recommendation 224 of the 339 recommendations of the 1991 Australian Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC), which had investigated 99 Aboriginal deaths in custody in the previous 10 years after community concerns were raised.

Implementation

Most states and territories did not comply with the CNS recommendation for decades. About 340 Aboriginal people died in custody between the recommendation being made in 1991 and 2015. By 2019, over 400 Aboriginal people had died in custody, and by the end of 2021, the number of deaths had reached 500. In October 2016, the then federal

Minister for Indigenous Affairs The Minister for Indigenous Australians in the Government of Australia is a position which holds responsibility for affairs affecting Indigenous Australians. Previous ministers have held various other titles since the position was created in 19 ...

Nigel Scullion Nigel Gregory Scullion (born 4 May 1956) is a former Australian politician who was a Australian Senate, Senator for the Northern Territory from 2001 to 2019. He was a member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) and sat with the National Party of A ...

, said that federal funding would be provided for the first three years of a CNS service after a state had introduced the necessary legislation. In October 2017, the

again urged states and territories to implement a CNS. The Attorney-General for Australia commissioned the

Australian Law Reform Commission The Australian Law Reform Commission (often abbreviated to ALRC) is an Australian independent statutory body established to conduct reviews into the law of Australia. The reviews, also called inquiries or references, are referred to the ALRC by ...

(ALRC) in October 2016 to examine the factors leading to the disproportionate numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australian prisons, and to look at ways of reforming legislation which might ameliorate this "national tragedy". The result of this in-depth enquiry was a report titled ''Pathways to Justice – Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples'', which was received by the Attorney-General in December 2017 and tabled in Parliament on 28 March 2018. The report listed 13 recommendations, covering many aspects of the legal framework and police and justice procedures, including: , Queensland and Tasmania had not yet introduced a legislated CNS.

2000: ACT & NSW

The CNS serving the

(ACT) and

(NSW) was established in 2000, allowing access to a lawyer through the

Aboriginal Legal Service 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 a ...

. It is mandated under NSW law (cl. 37 of the ''Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Regulation 2016'') that officers must inform the CNS, but not in ACT. The service has been successful and has since been cited as a model. In 2016, one Aboriginal person died in custody in NSW; this was the first time an Aboriginal person had died in custody in NSW or the ACT since the CNSs were implemented. Police failed to notify the CNS, rather than there being any problem with the service itself. this was the first time an Aboriginal person had died in custody in NSW or the ACT since the CNSs were implemented. Police failed to notify the CNS when the law did not mandate it for the case in question, rather than there being any problem with the service itself. When 36-year-old Rebecca Maher was taken into protective custody by police for being intoxicated, under the provisions of Part 16 of the ''Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002'', police were only obliged to call the CNS if an Indigenous person was taken into custody for an offence, not if they were detained as an intoxicated person under this Act. As a result of the

coronial inquest An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a coro ...

into her death, in October 2019 the NSW government implemented a change to extend the CNS to cover police custody of intoxicated persons.

2018: Northern Territory

In 2018, the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

agreed to implement a CNS. The system attracted criticism for exempting

protective custody Protective custody (PC) is a type of imprisonment (or care) to protect a person from harm, either from outside sources or other prisoners. Many prison administrators believe the level of violence, or the underlying threat of violence within pris ...

and paperless arrests; for such arrests, police are not required to notify the CNS. There had previously been deaths in NT following exempted types of arrests. There are reports that the CNS legislation was substantially drafted by the police. Since January 2019, the CNS has been operated by the

North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) is a non-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 ha ...

(NAAJA). An initial three years of funding was supplied by the federal government, with one more year promised in the 2022 budget. It had been agreed at the beginning that the

Northern Territory Government The Government of the Northern Territory of Australia, also referred to as the Northern Territory Government, is the Australian territorial democratic administrative authority of the Northern Territory. The Government of Northern Territory wa ...

would assume responsibility for funding the service at the end of the first three years, and that legislation would be enacted to protect the service, but this had not happened as of April 2022. In 2021, the CNS had assisted 8,000 Aboriginal people, of whom 750 were under the age of 18.

Oct 2019: Western Australia

In May 2016, a report recommended that

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

stop jailing people for unpaid fines. The report mentioned the

death of Ms Dhu Julieka Ivanna Dhu (commonly referred to as Ms Dhu; her first name was generally not used in media reports out of respect for Aboriginal naming customs) was a 22-year-old Aboriginal Australian woman who died in police custody in South Hedland ...

. The report was authored by Neil Morgan, Inspector of Custodial Services. The

Western Australian government The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...

rejected the federal government's offer. In March 2017, Dhu's family criticised both the major political parties in Western Australia for not supporting such a scheme. The incumbent

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

voiced their opposition to the program, while the Labor Party said they would consider the scheme though had made no commitments.

Attorney-General of Western Australia The Attorney-General of Western Australia is the member of the Government of Western Australia responsible for maintenance and improvement of Western Australia's system of law and justice. Before the advent of representative government in 1870 ...

, John Quigley, supported such a program, saying "I think it slife-saving legislation. I'm sure if they took the late Ms Dhu into custody ... if the Aboriginal Legal Service adbeen contacted on day one it would have been a very different outcome". An online petition calling for the scheme was signed by almost 20,000 people in less than one week. On 21 May 2018, it was announced that the WA state government had reconsidered the offer from the federal government to fund a CNS, and that the service would be operational by the end of the year. The Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia would operate the service. Funding negotiations held up the establishment of the service. In November 2018 it was announced the service would be operational in the first half of 2019. The service would cost $952,000 per year, with the Federal Government and State Government contributing $750,000 and $202,000 respectively. ALSWA would employ five lawyers and two support staff to run the service. The ALSWA commenced its CNS service on 2 October 2019. Under the ''Police Force Amendment Regulations 2019'' (WA),

Western Australia Police The Western Australia Police Force, colloquially WAPOL, provides police services throughout the state of Western Australia, an area of 2.5 million square kilometres, the world's largest non-federated area of jurisdiction, with a population ...

will be required to phone the CNS every time an Aboriginal person, child or adult, is detained in a police facility, regardless of the reason.

June 2020: Victoria

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

had some non-legislative CNS-like requirements in ''Victoria Police Manual’s instruction 113-1'', with notifications are known as ''E* Justice Notifications''. In 2018 a proposed law was being reviewed by the Victorian legislature. On 13 June 2020 it was announced that the federal government would fund the

Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

(VALS), which already provided an informal version, to deliver an expanded CNS service, after the

Parliament of Victoria The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly and ...

had passed new legislation. $2.1 million would be provided over three years to establish the service.

July 2020: South Australia

On 1 July 2020, the

Attorney-General of South Australia The attorney-general of South Australia is the Cabinet minister in the Government of South Australia who is responsible for that state's system of law and justice. The attorney-general must be a qualified legal practitioner, although this wa ...

Vickie Chapman Vickie Ann Chapman is a former Australian politician, representing the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Bragg for the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia between the 2002 election and May 2022. Chapman served ...

, announced that the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...

would implement a formal CNS, after Aboriginal Affairs Labor spokesperson

Kyam Maher Kyam Joseph Maher is an Australian politician who has been Attorney-General of South Australia and the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council since March 2022. He was appointed to a casual vacancy in the South Australian Legislati ...

had written to Premier Steven Marshall in June saying that he would introduce a Bill to parliament to legally mandate the service. This would legally require

SAPOL South Australia Police (SAPOL) is the police force of the Australian state of South Australia. SAPOL is an independent statutory agency of the Government of South Australia directed by the Commissioner of Police, who reports to the Minister fo ...

to notify the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (ALRM) when an Aboriginal person enters custody. This had been done informally for some time, but the legal requirement would "help to ensure Aboriginal people receive culturally appropriate well-being support and basic legal advice as soon as possible after being taken into custody". Mandating the measure would also mean that if an officer refuses or fails to comply, they "may be subject to disciplinary proceedings" under the ''Police Complaints and Discipline Act 2016''. The move was welcomed by ALRM, which had been lobbying for it for years. The Summary Offences (Custody Notification Service) Variation Regulations 2020 was

gazetted A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...

on 2 July 2020.PDF
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