Publications

The ALRC produces a range of publications including:

Inquiry Reports,
Consultation Documentation,
Information sheets, and
Reform Journal

The ALRC is committed to improving public access to its work and all past reports and recent consultation papers are available for free viewing and download via this website.

Some publications are available in book format for purchase.

27.03.2018

Pathways to Justice–Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (ALRC 133 Summary)

This Summary Report provides an accessible overview of the policy framework and recommendations in the Report, Pathways to Justice–Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (ALRC Report 133), tabled on 28 March 2018.This publication is available for purchase in book format.

13.03.2018

Review of the Family Law System—Issues Paper (IP 48)

This Issues Paper was released on 14 March 2018. The ALRC invites submissions in response to the commentary, analysis and questions in the Issues Paper. If your submission contains information about a court proceeding, including a proceeding under the Family Law Act 1975, you should carefully consider the terms of any order made by a court …

18.01.2018

Summary

12.1 The Terms of Reference for this Inquiry ask the ALRC to have regard to laws that may contribute to the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offending, including ‘driving offences and unpaid fines’—the statutory enforcement regimes of which affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people unduly and can result in incarceration.12.2 The ALRC …

18.01.2018

Fines and infringement notices

12.6 The term ‘fines’ usually encompasses both fines imposed by courts following convictions and infringement notices, which are monetary penalties handed out at the point of infringement by issuing officers. Issuing officers include transit police, police officers and council workers.[1] The two penalty types have clear differences and non‑payment can have different consequences. Nonetheless, unless …

18.01.2018

Imprisonment terms that ‘cut out’ or result from fine debt

Recommendation 12–1 Fine default should not result in the imprisonment of the defaulter. State and territory governments should abolish provisions in fine enforcement statutes that provide for imprisonment in lieu of, or as a result of, unpaid fines. 12.30 The ALRC recommends that statutory provisions permitting imprisonment resulting from unpaid fines should be repealed. Fines …

18.01.2018

Increase the efficacy of fine regimes

Recommendation 12–2 State and territory governments should work with relevant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations to develop options that: reduce the imposition of fines and infringement notices;limit the penalty amounts of infringement notices;avoid suspension of driver licences for fine default; andprovide alternative ways of paying fines and infringement notices.12.41 Fines are of little benefit …

18.01.2018

Driving when unlicensed

Recommendation 12–3 State and territory governments should work with relevant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and community organisations to identify areas without services relevant to driver licensing and to provide those services, particularly in regional and remote communities. 12.130 A person who is convicted of driving when unlicensed is likely to enter the fine …

18.01.2018

Infringement notices for offensive language

12.167 Stakeholders to this Inquiry have advised that offensive language provisions and subsequent infringement notices for such conduct continue to be an issue for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Recommendation 12–4 State and territory governments should review the effect on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of statutory provisions that criminalise offensive language with …

28.09.2017

Annual Report 2016-2017 (ALRC Report 132)

The ALRC Annual Report for 2016-17 was tabled on 16 October 2017. The report has been reproduced here in html for accessability. For a true version of the tabled report, please see the PDF version.

08.08.2017

Intern program

Over the winter semester break the ALRC was delighted to host Indigenous law student from Melbourne University, Declan Fry, for five weeks under the Aurora Internship Program. Declan was a fantastic addition to the Indigenous Incarceration team. In Semester 2, the ALRC looks forward to welcoming Shirisha Nampalli, Isha Fay, and Paige Bisset, students at …