Aboriginal people have no reason to believe in the capacity of our legal systems to provide protection or justice, nor in the willingness or ability of the administrators of justice to act in an even-handed manner. As a result of European occupation of this country, the original owners have not only been dispossessed of their land but have also been mistreated by the very legal systems which were supposed to bring them enlightened forms of justice. Australia's adoption of British legal systems led to the false impression that justice would be administered in an equitable manner to all Australians. Yet the position of Aborigines before the law does not support this belief. In fact it casts doubt on many aspects of the judicial system as it operates in the lives of deprived or disadvantaged persons generally.

In two hundred years we have failed to come to grips with the essential causes of this injustice. As one Australian colony after another was occupied, official speeches full of idealism offered worthless promises to Aboriginal residents. In 1839, for example, Governor Gipps wrote: