The Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) says it will be forced to freeze criminal law services at 13 courts if they do not receive emergency funding.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service Queensland has implemented temporary suspensions including last week at Magistrates Courts in Atherton, Innisfail, Mareeba and Tully.
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services chair Karly Warner, who is also the chief executive of Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT), told AAP that circumstances are dire.
Ms Warner said Indigenous legal services around Australia are calling on the federal government to deliver a $250 million emergency support package to prevent imminent service freezes and unjust incarceration.
"Demand for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services has increased by up to 100 per cent since 2018, but core funding from the Commonwealth has declined in real terms," she said.
"The federal government has known about our slide into crisis for some time.
"This is not something that has happened overnight.
"The service freezes will have dire consequences for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who need our services to have any chance of equal access to justice to prevent disastrous outcomes, like increased family violence, child removals, unjust incarceration, to deaths in custody.
"There's no point in sugarcoating this. We are on the brink of an absolute crisis and we're in the federal government's hands as to what they can do about it."
Ms Warner said the increased demand for Indigenous legal services was due to changes in policy, policing and bail regulations.
On Tuesday the Yoorrook Justice Commission, Victoria's First Nations truth-telling inquiry, heard the government knew the state's 2018 bail crackdown would adversely affect Aboriginal people.
In the year ending June 2022, more than 1300 Aboriginal people were imprisoned in Victoria.
Almost 90 per cent were on remand, while only one in 10 were sentenced offenders.
"Policy decisions by governments around the country driving a 'law and order' agenda has led to increasing demand for our help," Ms Warner said.
"In Victoria, for example, record investment in policing has resulted in an 18 per cent rise in the demand for the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service over just six months.
"Meanwhile, the rates of child removals, self harm and suicide for our communities are increasing in many jurisdictions."
The 13 Aboriginal Legal Service local court services set for freezes in NSW are Byron Bay, Eden, Forster, Junee, Lithgow, Moss Vale, Muswellbrook, Scone, Singleton, Temora, Tenterfield, West Wyalong and Wauchope.
A spokesperson for Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the first Albanese government budget last October included $99 million to fund a First Nations Justice Package.
"This includes $13.5 million in additional funding to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services to increase their capacity to provide culturally appropriate legal assistance in coronial inquiries and $1 million to build greater capacity in the peak body, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services," the spokesperson said.
The current National Legal Assistance Partnership, through which the Commonwealth provides funding for Indigenous legal services, legal aid and community legal centres, ends on June 30, 2025.
An independent review of the agreement, between the Commonwealth and states and territories, is commencing this year.
"The review is an opportunity to examine the adequacy of funding and ensure the legal assistance sector is best equipped to deal with current and future challenges," the spokesperson said.
