Failure to adequately fund this sector will only hurt COVID-19 recovery efforts, Law Council president says
The Law Council of Australia has expressed its disappointment in the lack of extra government funding for the legal assistance sector.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced the Federal Budget 2020-21 on Monday – and as part of the budget, the government has allocated $35.7m over a four-year period to resourcing and the judiciary in the Federal Circuit Court. The overall investment is estimated to come to $132.1m, and is intended to speed up the resolution of family law matters, among others.
The Law Council praised the announcement and said that the funding “follows repeated calls from the Law Council for additional judicial resourcing, to improve outcomes for Australian families and migration applicants.”
The organisation’s president, Pauline Wright, said that the budget would indeed “alleviate some of the hardship faced by Australian families with matters before the court.” However, the outcomes are not entirely positive, as “the budgeted increase in Federal Circuit Court filing fees for migration litigants is likely to increase social disadvantage to those who can least afford it.”
“It is also disappointing that there has been no additional funding for the legal assistance sector in addition to the funds previously announced following the bushfires and COVID-19,” Wright said.
She pointed out that the sector had consistently stepped up during these crises despite its limited budget.
“The legal assistance sector has been chronically underfunded for years by successive governments, yet these frontline legal services have stood up to the challenge and worked tirelessly during the aftermath of the bushfires and throughout the pandemic to assist vulnerable Australians with their legal needs,” Wright said.
She indicated that providing proper funding to both the legal assistance sector and courts and tribunals is necessary in the industry’s COVID-19 recovery process.
“A properly funded legal assistance sector, together with adequate funding for Commonwealth courts and tribunals, are essential components to the COVID-19 crisis recovery. The government’s failure to adequately fund this sector will only hurt our recovery,” Wright said.
Nonetheless, the Law Council said it showed its support for the following measures:
