Responding to Queenslanders’ needs

The Queensland Law Society Call to Parties statement for the 2024 state election recognises the increasing amount of unmet legal need in communities.

The prevalence of unmet legal need has been recognised in the Justice on the Brink report of November 2023¹, the Community Legal Centres Australia, State of the Sector 2022-23 survey report² and the comprehensive review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership³.

These reports demonstrate the increasing unmet legal need is being driven by a combination of means testing for legal services and the rapidly rising legal need in the community. Community legal centres are suffering from a significant lack of resources which is preventing access to justice for many Queenslanders.  

QLS highlights that culturally appropriate services must be available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

QLS has proposed reforms to enhance access to justice and calls for a commitment to:

• Implementing a new Access to Justice Partnership to replace the National Legal Assistance Partnership Agreement;
• Increase funding to Queensland’s community legal centres;
• Implement recommendations of the Independent Review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership Final Report to reform existing modes of funding distribution;
• Maintain the increased funding provision provided to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service to support ongoing workforce demands;
• Increase rates paid for grants of legal aid to private practitioners to the same level as provided in the relevant court scales;
• Provide targeted legal assistance funding for prisoners to address the high numbers of people in correctional facilities, detention centres and watch houses;
• Increase funding for civil law services including family law disputes, LGBTIQA+ legal services, domestic and family violence matters, immigration and citizenship law issues, housing disputes (including renting), consumer disputes, anti-discrimination and vilification matters, elder law issues, guardianship issues, disability issues and employment and workplace relations disputes;
• Fund a state-wide specialist financial rights legal services for person with consumer credit and debt issues;
• Establish a small grants program for innovation and technology access to justice concepts to permit community legal centres, not-for-profits and law practices to invest in pilot technology projects;
• Resource a free court transcription service to ensure that parties can access free transcripts in appropriate cases;
• Maintain sufficient funding for the Queensland Human Rights Commission and for legal assistance for those whose rights under the Human Rights Act 2019 have been breached;
• Allow legal representation, as of right, in all actions in QCAT, the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission and the Queensland Human Rights commission and legal assistance sector funding for this to be provided.

QLS has engaged in long-standing advocacy to ensure the legal assistance sector is adequately funded and resourced to ensure access to justice for Queenslanders. This can be seen in various QLS submissions such as to the Independent Review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership and the QLS Access to Justice Policy Position, available here.

Advertisement

The Law Council of Australia has recently launched the Access to Justice for All campaign which, in recognising the chronic underfunding of the legal assistance sector, calls on all governments to significantly increase their support for Australia’s legal assistance sector.

This campaign also seeks commitments from all governments to meaningfully partner with the legal assistance sector to progress the recommendations in the Final Report of the Independent Review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership.

Members are invited to review the Call to Parties statement here. The Queensland state election will be held on 26 October 2024.

Footnotes
¹ https://www.nationallegalaid.org/resources/justice-on-the-brink/
² https://clcs.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/SotS22-23SurveyReport_ASectorInCrisis.pdf
³ https://www.ag.gov.au/legal-system/publications/independent-review-national-legal-assistance-partnership-2020-25