Key links

National Legal Aid: Meeting Tomorrow's Needs With Yesterday's Budgets: The Undercapacity of Legal Aid in Australia, National Legal Aid, July '96

Budget 1996/97

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice press release 20 August 1996 announcing $33.2 million per annum reduction in federal funding for legal aid commissions from 1997-98 also see Budget Summary Attachment 3: 'Revised legal aid funding arrangements' - within this release

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice press release   9 February 1997 Legal Aid - The Facts

Budget 1997/8

Take this link to the Attorney-General's 1997/8 budget statement

Portfolio Budget Statements 1997-8, Attorney-General's Portfolio, Budget Initiatives and Explanations of Appropriations, Budget Related Paper No. 1.1

Take this link to the Government's budget statement 'Our Commitment to Women'

Attorney-General press release 12 November 1997 Legal Aid Changes Achieve Balance and Equity

(1) The capacity of the Australian legal aid system to meet community demand for:

(a) legal advice and information; and

 (b) representation and other advocacy services.

(2) The respective responsibilities of the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments  and the profession in the provision of legal aid through Legal Aid Commissions and other agencies and mechanisms.

(3) The implications for Commonwealth responsibility for legal assistance arising from:

(a) its international obligations; and

(b) its interests in achieving national equity and uniform access to justice across Australia.

(4) The nature and level of legislative, organisational and administrative impediments (including court filing fees) to effective delivery of legal assistance.

(5) The levels of disparity between the Commonwealth Government's payment of legal services it uses (both in-house and from private practice) and rates of payment to legal aid lawyers (both in-house and from private practice).

(6) The relationship between the legal profession and Government in delivering legal assistance services and the role of the courts in minimising the costs of those services.

(7) The equity implications arising from the current tax deductibility regime for legal expenses, including by the corporate sector.

(8) The implications, if any, for the legal aid system that arise from the High Court Dietrich decision.

(9) The capacity of the legal aid system, in the proposed funding arrangements, to provide for separate representation of children where such assistance is essential in the pursuit of  justice.

The committee released three reports and concluded with the third report released on 25 June 1998. The second and third reports are on the web:

Second Report Senate Committee Inquiry on Legal Aid, June 1997

Senate Committee third (final) report on legal aid  25 June 1998

Take this link to Hansard of evidence on the Inquiry - including evidence given during March 1998.