A report released by the Commonwealth Ombudsman says the lack of access to interpreting services for Indigenous Australians means they are at a major disadvantage when it comes to accessing government services.

The situation is particularly acute in the Northern Territory, where there are a number of multilingual indigenous communities where English isn’t the first language.

Acting Ombudsman Alison Larkins says the report found an extensive unmet need for interpreter services in indigenous communities. Ms Larkins says it also found that many people working in service delivery were often unaware of the need for an interpreter.

Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2008, show around 10 percent of Indigenous people aged 15 years and over speak an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander language at home.

But in remote areas the figure is much higher, with more than 40 percent of residents speaking an Indigenous language as their first language.

The Ombudsman’s report says a shortage of suitable interpreter exists for various reasons.

One reason is that, of the 145 Indigenous languages still spoken in Australia, 110 are at risk of disappearing, thus reducing the number of potential interpreters.

The report found there also remains an underlying assumption that many indigenous Australians speak English as their first language.

See: SBS