The former chief executive of Australia’s largest Indigenous legal service has called for the Commonwealth and Northern Territory Governments to “step in” and clean up the organisation, after the federal court found she was unfairly sacked.
Former North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency chief executive Priscilla Atkins told Sky News she felt a great deal of relief, following a Federal Court ruling that NAAJA’s board had unfairly dismissed her after Ms Atkins had made allegations of corruption against senior members of staff.
“It’s a huge relief and I can finally breathe again,” she said.
“I can’t even describe how stressful that is when you had worked your whole life to build up such a successful organisation and overnight to lose your reputation, you lose your career, you lose your mental health and you’re about to lose your house because you can’t afford anything anymore.”
Justice Natalie Charlesworth on Thursday detailed how Ms Atkins had written to the NAAJA board in November 2022, raising allegations about the performance and conduct of the organisation’s chief financial officer Madhur Evans.
In the weeks and months that followed, NAAJA took action to suspend her, order an investigation into her conduct, and then dismissed her without the knowledge of some board members.
Justice Charlesworth said Ms Evans had a “substantial role” in the decision to suspend Ms Atkins and order the investigation, that was conducted by auditors BDO Australia.
The judge found NAAJA’s chairperson, Colleen Rosas, had withheld documentation from that investigation.
“There was a deliberate decision to confine BDO in its investigation by not seeking any court documents from Ms Atkins,” Justice Charlesworth found.
Ms Rosas has not responded to a request for comment.
During the court proceedings, Ms Rosas made allegations that Ms Atkins had forged her signature on a document that had afforded Ms Atkins a contract extension and a pay rise. Justice Charlesworth found NAAJA had provided insufficient evidence to prove this claim.
Ms Atkins has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
“All I did was put in a complaint and look what happened,” she told Sky News immediately after the decision was delivered on Thursday.
“All I wanted was for my complaint to be addressed.”
Ms Atkins’ sacking has led to significant turmoil at NAAJA. A mass exodus of staff last year meant the organisation has been unable to adequately represent Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory’s justice system.
There was further controversy after a known domestic violence offender was appointed to replace Ms Rosas as chair earlier this year.
The board has since resisted calls for Hugh Woodbury, who pleaded guilty to assaulting his pregnant partner in 2020 but was not convicted, to stand down.
Questions asked by Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in Senate Estimates has revealed 90 NAAJA clients have gone unrepresented since October last year, including 27 who were remanded in custody due to poor service delivery.
Senator Price has accused Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney and Northern Territory Attorney-General Chansey Paech – who called a crisis meeting this week about NAAJA – of doing “too little, too late” to address the issue.
Ms Atkins said it was “heart-wrenching” to see what had happened to the organisation where she had worked for more than 15 years.
“When you’re brought up in a big Aboriginal family in Alice Springs, and that’s why I got into justice to make sure our mob could access justice and to see what’s happened over 18 months. It’s heartbreaking knowing we’ve got people sitting in jail with no legal representation,” she said.
She said the worst part of her experience was that she was left to fight her battle with the NAAJA board alone.
“Everyone who has the power to do this, whether you’re Commonwealth or Northern Territory Government, whether you’re ASIC, all of them have to step in now because at the end of the day this isn’t about a NAAJA board, this is about providing essential services to our Aboriginal mob,” she said.
Justice Charlesworth has ordered a management hearing for next Thursday and ordered Ms Atkins’ lawyers to put forward a proposal for remedies before then.
Ms Atkins said she was unsure if she wanted to return to NAAJA, saying that was something she would discuss with her family over the coming days.