First Nations lawyers call for urgent action on Walama Court

First Nations lawyers in NSW have urged the state government to act swiftly to establish the long-awaited Walama Court to help divert Indigenous offenders from prison and reduce reoffending.

Sydney barrister Tony McAvoy, SC, the nation's first Indigenous silk, and Professors Larissa Behrendt and Megan Davis are among high-powered Indigenous lawyers calling in an open letter for the government to set up the court "as a matter of urgency".

Sydney barrister Damian Beaufils outside the Supreme Court in King Street.Credit: Louise Kennerley

The proposed court, located in and backed by the NSW District Court, takes its name from the word for "come back" in Dharug language and would involve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders in sentencing discussions, rehabilitation and monitoring.

Sydney barrister Damian Beaufils, who signed the letter, told the Herald it was clear First Nations people are incarcerated at a rate much higher than non-Indigenous people and that the court was urgently required.

The Indigenous imprisonment rate in NSW is 13.5 times higher than the non-Indigenous imprisonment rate, according to 2016 statistics.

"The government clearly needs a new approach to help reduce this shocking over-representation and to better meet the needs of First Nations people caught up in the criminal justice system," Mr Beaufils said.

Professor Behrendt, from the University of Technology, Sydney, and Professor Davis, from the University of NSW, lent crucial backing to the letter from the Ngalaya Indigenous Corporation, the peak body for First Nations lawyers and law students in NSW.

Professor Davis is a member of the NSW Sentencing Council, which provides independent advice to government on sentencing matters.

The Walama Court is based on intensive supervision of offenders and draws on aspects of other initiatives, including the Koori Court inside the Magistrates' Court of Victoria and the NSW Local Court's circle sentencing initiative, which involves Indigenous offenders' communities in sentencing.

Mr Beaufils said the court would recognise "Elders' cultural authority and the importance of community-centred, holistic support for First Nations people".

The court would be open to 75 to 100 participants a year who have pleaded guilty to an offence, excluding sexual offences.

Ganur Maynard, a law graduate at Herbert Smith Freehills and a signatory to the letter, said the Walama Court was a "perfect example of very well-researched, evidence-based reform that makes sense from a social point of view and a financial point of view".

"It just takes a little bit of political courage to implement it, and that's the only thing that we can really see that's impeding the proposal," Mr Maynard said.

A business case by the NSW Justice Department and Treasury in December 2018 costed a five-year pilot of the court at $19.3 million, or less than $3.9 million a year.

It calculated potential savings over six to eight years of $16.2 million on prison beds and $5.6 million from lowered recidivism, plus potential productivity gains.

Legal Aid lawyer and signatory Teela Reid, a member of the Walama Working Group, has described the court's objective as returning Aboriginal people to the safety of their communities and ensuring they don't "languish inside a prison cell".

Get our Morning & Evening Edition newsletters

The most important news, analysis and insights delivered to your inbox at the start and end of each day. Sign up to The Sydney Morning Herald’s newsletter here,  The Age’s newsletter here, Brisbane Times' here and WAtoday's here.