Brain injury survivor lived beneath poverty line under NT's Public Guardian and Trustee system

ABC NEWS (Australia)

An Aboriginal woman's fight to get off a guardianship in a remote part of the Northern Territory has exposed a deeper problem of cultural bias in cognitive tests. The case comes as the NT's public guardian and trustee system races to keep up with a growing caseload of First Nations people.

Transcript

00:00 With questions like, who is the current New South Wales Premier?

00:05 It was a test that Tracey, an Aboriginal woman with a brain injury and under financial guardianship,

00:11 was destined to fail.

00:12 Tracey, Aboriginal woman, "I don't think other Aboriginal people would understand and

00:16 know that as well."

00:17 Since 2016, the number of people under guardianship in the NT has jumped from 890 to 1,300.

00:25 But the amount of funding for the agency tasked with representing them has remained the same.

00:31 In the NT, three quarters of adults under guardianship orders are Indigenous, meaning

00:36 a guardian has been appointed to make important decisions for them.

00:39 But the use of cognitive tests, which don't consider language or cultural barriers, is

00:44 making it harder to accurately assess First Nations people.

00:47 Tracey, Aboriginal woman, "This is a really important issue and we want to make sure that people aren't disadvantaged

00:55 or discriminated against because of cultural bias."

00:59 Dr. David Cooke, Director of the National Institute of Indigenous Studies, "People are found to

01:00 lack competence when it's just because in their culture they don't know about the kinds

01:05 of things that this silly questionnaire asks them to provide answers to."

01:09 In the NT, a shortage of funding and allied health professionals, combined with a large

01:14 Indigenous population in remote areas, is adding to the Office of the Public Guardian

01:19 and Trustees' workload, leaving increasing room for error.

01:22 Dr. Sarah Cooke, Director of the National Institute of Indigenous Studies, "We run the risk of

01:25 people being involved with guardianship when potentially they shouldn't be."

01:30 Dr. David Cooke, Director of the National Institute of Indigenous Studies, "And as a consequence,

01:32 people are being put under orders when they don't need them.

01:35 People are being put under orders that restrict too much of their money."

01:39 A public service under increasing pressure and in urgent need of support.

01:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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