Briefing Paper

The Dealing with Fines project was established in 2022 as a result of COVID. Walgett community members received the highest rates of COVID fines in NSW, and a COVID-related underspend enabled the employment of the Dealing with Fines team at the DEG. It has emerged as an exemplar of Yuwaya Ngarrali's strategy and strengths. It combines three key roles that Dharriwaa Elders Group and Yuwaya Ngarrali can effectively play: direct support to community members; collaborating with and building capability of both ACCOs and mainstream agencies; and advocacy and public engagement grounded in research.

In its first year of operation, 94 people in Walgett were supported to have their fines written off or to participate in WDO activities to clear their fines, amounting to the reduction of $178,112 worth of fine debt while enabling people to access mental health and drug and alcohol treatment and support at WAMS, and to grow skills and contribute positively to their community. These outcomes have been achieved through a strong community-led team at the DEG, along with expert support from Peta MacGillivray, the Aboriginal Legal Service Civil Law team, and Legal Aid NSW. Sustained advocacy by DEG and YN and analysis of fines and policing data has helped draw attention to how fine debt locks people out of education and employment and increases criminalisation. Our advocacy also contributed to systemic efforts to have COVID fines withdrawn.

DEG hopes that the Dealing with Fines service model designed and tested in our Yuwaya Ngarrali partnership will be funded by government agencies so that other communities can benefit from it as well. In Yuwaya Nagrrali we seek to share our learnings and service models so that other Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations like Dharriwaa Elders Group may benefit. We aim to be open and clear about what we do - so that governments and departmental decisionmakers will understand the evidence we are providing about what we think is a valuable service for our community. In this Briefing Paper we describe our progress to establish the Dharriwaa Elders Group Dealing with Fines program, and some of the outcomes we have measured, that have been produced from the program.