Page 2561 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 August 2007
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• The feasibility study into the provision of a service at the new prison and remand centre is welcome.
• I will be interested to see the outcome of this study as it could be a valuable service to remandees needing legal assistance.
• The development of procedures for electronic application lodgement, eligibility assessment and funds transfer to meet existing and developing requirements of clients and legal practitioners is welcome.
• Hopefully, this will improve the efficiency of processes and free resources to help the disadvantaged.
• The Estimates Committee recommended that better data about the types of matters funded and the profile of recipients be made available.
• In particular, the committee had concerns about data about indigenous people and their access to legal aid as well access to legal aid in various fields of the law.
• It is encouraging that the Legal Aid Commission seemed aware of these issues and hopefully the information will be presented in a more useful format.
• There was also a concern about Output Class 1.2 called In-house Legal Payments.
• This included all expenses that weren’t a direct payment to external legal practitioners.
• The Estimates Committee recommended that this Output Class be renamed In-house services.
• I understand that the Government has taken this on board.
• The Legal Aid Commission helps the disadvantaged to access the legal system and should be able to continue providing its services given this allocation and continued support from the Commonwealth.
ORDERS OF THE DAY – 30 August 2007
Appropriation Bill 2007-2008
Resumption of Debate – Mr Stefaniak
Part 1.20 – Public Trustee
Mr Speaker, the Office of the Public Trustee is one of those quiet achievers that we all admire so much. It is one of those organisations that provide a much needed and highly professional public service, but do it without loud fanfare.
Writing Wills is the Public Trustee’s primary task. In the more than 22 years since its establishment the office has written in excess of 12,500 wills. The
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