Legal aid crisis escalates
By Stuart Russell
SYDNEY — On March 5, thousands of legal services workers, trade unionists, community organisations and supporters joined lunchtime rallies around the country to protest the Howard government's cuts of $120 million over three years to the national legal aid system. The cuts will take full effect on June 30.
In NSW, Legal Aid Commission (LAC) lawyers took industrial action by refusing to appear in court. A NSW LAC decision to withdraw its lawyers from appearing at weekend bail applications because of the cuts was retracted after criticisms from senior legal figures.
There is a widening rift between the federal government and the states, some of whom have threatened to withdraw from the national legal aid network and set up their own system for cases under state law.
In 1992, the High Court ruled that anyone charged with a serious criminal offence must be represented, otherwise their case should be adjourned or permanently stayed. Some criminal defendants have recently requested that their prosecutions be halted, since legal aid is not available to them. In one serious drug case, faced with the possibility of an embarrassing failed prosecution, the NSW government agreed to pay for legal aid.
Evidence of the harmful effect of legal aid cuts in mounting constantly. In Melbourne, Robert Richter QC told the 600 people protesting outside the Victorian Supreme Court on March 5 that people were already serving jail sentences because they had not been adequately represented in court. Many defendants in criminal cases are now told that they won't get legal aid unless they agree to plead guilty.
The Domestic Violence Advocacy Service NSW was forced to cut one quarter of its budget.
Legal aid was recently denied to an Aboriginal man in Darwin in the middle of his trail for murder. A Victorian man seeking to uncover the reasons for his wife's death during a train derailment was denied legal aid, as were two children involved in a Family Court dispute.
A physically disabled six-year-old girl, who may be forced to move out of a mainstream school class, was also refused legal aid for her case before the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. The federal government has turned a blind eye to a series of pleas and protests to reverse the cuts.
The poor, young people, women, workers and Aboriginal people will suffer disproportionately. Women will bear the brunt of the cuts since criminal trials, which overwhelmingly involve male defendants, will take priority over civil disputes, such as family law matters.
Legal aid is a social not an individual problem. The solution to individual injustices is not to fund legal aid in one particular case, but to make it available to all, and expand its services.
While the March 5 rallies and strike in NSW were welcome signs of resistance to the cuts, more action is needed to place sufficient pressure on the federal government so that it takes corrective action. The only way to do this and save legal aid is to maintain the public protests against the government.