Middle Class Priced Out Of Justice, A-g Warns
Sun Herald
Sunday August 17, 2008
MIDDLE Australia is being excluded from the justice system by soaring court costs and a diminished legal-aid system, Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland has warned.
Signalling a major overhaul of the courts and legal aid, Mr McClelland said Australia was facing a profound "emerging tension", with the bulk of middle-income earners unable to afford litigation.Justice was now available only for the "very wealthy", or those on lower incomes who could gain access to legal aid, he said."If you are a middle-income earning Australian as the bulk of us are, the prospect of any substantial litigation is horrendous, because of the cost," Mr McClelland said. "You are literally risking your house for any substantial litigation and we've got to ensure that we maintain access to the courts by middle Australians."He said the rule of law was only relevant "to the extent to which all people have reasonable access to address their grievances", warning it would be unfortunate if Australia were to go down the American path, with costly speculative cases bogging the courts and leading to soaring insurance costs.The Federal Government has been negotiating with the states on a sweeping overhaul of legal-aid funding. It is almost certain to involve abandoning a rule where Commonwealth funds can be used only to fight cases involving federal matters.The Government wants to make Commonwealth funds available to help families and children embroiled in cases before state courts, particularly those involving child protection and family violence.A spokeswoman for NSW Attorney-General John Hatzistergos said any move by the Federal Government to improve legal aid was welcome."NSW has made big contributions to legal aid and we welcome any Federal Government support after years of Howard government neglect," the spokeswoman said."There is something wrong with a federal policy that delivers substantial tax deductions to large commercial litigants irrespective of how hopeless their cases are but fails to make basic provisions for ordinary people who need help the most."The case for an overhaul will be outlined in a speech by Mr McClelland to be delivered to the National Association of Community Legal Centres tomorrow. Mr McClelland will say that the policy of restricting Commonwealth legal aid funds to Commonwealth matters has created "artificial barriers to justice".Mr McClelland said there was also a very strong case for additional Commonwealth funding for legal aid and the community legal sector.Australia's legal-aid system has been whittled down over the past decade through severe funding cuts and spending restrictions. After getting a $17million one-off funding boost, legal aid received $178million from the Federal Government last financial year. This year, with no one-off payment, the figure is expected to be $164million, less than half the estimated $331million chipped in by the states.
© 2008 Sun Herald