The Civil and Family Law Needs of Indigenous People in Queensland

Background: This report presents key findings and recommendations of research conducted in 2011 - 2014 by the Indigenous Legal Needs Project (ILNP) in Queensland. 1 The ILNP is a national project, which aims to:\ud \ud • identify and analyse the legal needs of Indigenous communities in non - criminal areas of law (including discrimination, housing and tenancy, child protection, employment, credit and debt, wills and estates, and consumer - related matters); and\ud \ud • provide an understanding of how legal service delivery might work more effectively to address identified civil and family law needs of Indigenous communities.\ud \ud ILNP research is intended to benefit Indigenous people by improving access to civil and family law justice.\ud \ud Methodology: The Queensland research is based on focus groups held with Indigenous participants and interviews with legal and related stakeholders in eight communities. The communities selected were Brisbane, Cairns, Charleville, Mount Isa, Pormpuraaw, Rockhampton, Roma and Thursday Island. These reflect urban, regional and rural communities.\ud \ud Sixteen focus groups were held with a total of 152 Indigenous community members in the se eight communities. Separate women and men's focus groups were conducted in each community. Female participants comprised 53.9% of the total and males 46.1%.\ud \ud Focus group participants completed a questionnaire (see Appendix A), which covered issues including housing and tenancy, neighbourhood disputes, wills and intestacy, victims' compensation, stolen generations and Stolen Wages, employment, social security, family matters, discrimination, accident and injury, education, credit and debt, consumer issues and taxation. Some civil law issues not identified in the questionnaire also arose in focus group discussions and in stake holder interviews (see Section 4.14 of the Report).\ud \ud Over 60 stakeholder organisations servicing or working within the nominated Queensland communities were interviewed to explore the experiences, perspectives and understandings of those providing legal or related services. A full list of stakeholders interviewed in Queensland can be found in Appendix B of the Report