As with all things to do with Indigenous Australia the country hasn’t even started on the road to better representation as this article testifies
Report card is a big F for fail
However, while Australia’s legal profession has never been bigger and women have never made up such a large percentage of that profession, the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lawyers has not increased. Indeed, the share of Indigenous solicitors hasn’t changed since 2014 — it remains at 0.8 of a percentage point.
In 2016, there was a slight increase in the proportion of Indigenous solicitors (rising to 1.2 per cent), before slumping to 0.7 of a percentage point in 2018 and then stabilising at 0.8 of a percentage point this past year.
Just over half (55 per cent) of those identifying as such are female, while the balance are male. The Northern Territory and New South Wales have the greatest share of Indigenous solicitors (2 per cent and 1.1 per cent, respectively), while just 0.3 of a percentage point Victoria’s profession, at the other end of the spectrum, is Indigenous.
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