Diane Spooner
The Attorney-General’s Portfolio budget statements 2013-14, Program 1.5: Indigenous Law and Justice,[1] has an increase in expenses for this Program of $6.0 million per year in 2013-14 and 2014-15 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services. The aim of this Program is to improve access to justice for Indigenous people through the provision of services.[2]
This increase in expenses reflects the additional budget measure Legal assistance —expansion of funding. This measure is set out in Budget measures: budget paper no. 2: 2013-14 where the Government will provide $42.0 million over two years for legal assistance services.[3] Funding of $15.0 million in each of the next two years will be provided to state and territory legal aid commissions, and funding of $6.0 million in each year will be provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services.[4]
However, it is not clear if this additional funding is included in the budget amounts listed for Indigenous legal aid and policy reform ($73.8 million in 2013-2014—up from $68.2 million in 2012‑2013).[5]
In his speech outlining access to justice measures in the Budget, the Attorney-General said that the $12 million of new funding will allow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services to:
[b]uild on the recent increase in Commonwealth funding for family law and child protection matters and to respond to expensive and complex criminal cases.[6]
Further details on legal aid and community legal services can be found in the Legal Aid brief.
[5]. Portfolio budget statements 2012-2013, Attorney-General’s Portfolio, op. cit., p. 30. Prior to 2010-2011, payments were made for ‘the provision of legal aid for Indigenous Australians’ and also for ‘the provision of law and justice advocacy services for Indigenous Australians’. As noted by the Attorney-General’s Department: Legal Aid for Indigenous Australians and the Law and Justice Advocacy and Development Programs were combined during the [2010-11] year to create the Indigenous Legal Assistance and Policy Reform Program’: Attorney-General’s Department, Annual report 2010-11, p. 87.
For copyright reasons some linked items are only available to members of Parliament.
© Commonwealth of Australia
In essence, you are free to copy and communicate this work in its current form for all non-commercial purposes, as long as you attribute the work to the author and abide by the other licence terms. The work cannot be adapted or modified in any way. Content from this publication should be attributed in the following way: Author(s), Title of publication, Series Name and No, Publisher, Date.
To the extent that copyright subsists in third party quotes it remains with the original owner and permission may be required to reuse the material.
Inquiries regarding the licence and any use of the publication are welcome to webmanager@aph.gov.au.
This work has been prepared to support the work of the Australian Parliament using information available at the time of production. The views expressed do not reflect an official position of the Parliamentary Library, nor do they constitute professional legal opinion.
Feedback is welcome and may be provided to: web.library@aph.gov.au. Any concerns or complaints should be directed to the Parliamentary Librarian. Parliamentary Library staff are available to discuss the contents of publications with Senators and Members and their staff. To access this service, clients may contact the author or the Library‘s Central Entry Point for referral.