Relationships Australia Northern Territory are about to embark on a project providing Legally Assisted and Culturally Appropriate Family Dispute Resolution (LACAFDR) services to families who have experienced domestic violence.

Media attention has recently been drawn to calls to increase mandatory sentences of imprisonment for assaults on Police officers.

Law Society NT (Society) president Mr Tass Liveris said, “Northern Territory courts lock up more people than anywhere else in Australia and it hasn’t reduced crime or re-offending. We are all seeing our imprisonment and re-offending rates continually going up. Our Indigenous imprisonment rate is in crisis. Making sentencing laws even harsher is not going to stop assaults or make the community any safer; it will only make these problems worse.”

The Law Society NT (Society) calls on people in the Northern Territory to tell their story as part of a national review into access to justice.

The Society today called on people in the Northern Territory to help show the human face of the crisis affecting access to justice in Australia by telling their story to the Law Council’s Justice Project – which has today moved into its consultation phase. The Justice Project is a comprehensive national review into the state of access to justice in Australia, supported by the Society, focusing on challenges for the most vulnerable. Consultation papers, overseen by a Steering Committee of eminent lawyers, academics and jurists including former High Court Chief Justice, the Hon. Robert French AC, have been distributed nationally.