Page 4943 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
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Government could consider that the ethical situations that the firms abide by are sufficient, at this stage, for it to put that work out to local or local-national connected firms.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (9.01): I thank Mr Collaery for his pleasant comments directed to officers of the Law Office, now the Attorney-General's Department. I found his assertions about the anti-lawyer bias of the Labor Government somewhat peculiar, speaking from the perspective of the lawyer member of the Government.
As for the rest of his ravings about the Bruce Stadium, I think Mr Berry has dealt with that appropriately. We in the Labor Government just wonder why Mr Collaery is so obsessive about this issue. We think it is most appropriate that the country's best football team should enjoy the facilities of the country's best stadium, and, if Mr Collaery finds something wrong or sinister with that, we will leave it with him. Mr Berry addressed the matter most eloquently and appropriately.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure - Division 110 - Community Legal Services, $7,249,400
MR COLLAERY (9.02): Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I rise to comment upon the legal aid service which is funded out of this area. In recent days, we have heard the marvellous and dedicated executive director of that service indicating that budget strains remain in that office. In a period of unprecedented social dislocation in Canberra, particularly matters of debt and strains in family dynamics, that office is stretched to the limit. It is stretched to the limit, of course, with other concerns, domestic violence and the rest; but, happily, the Law Society contributed funds at the right juncture this year and that situation was ameliorated.
I want to draw attention to the concerns the commission and the Law Office have expressed in relation to the cost of transcripts. Each page of the Hansard and each page of a court transcript costs $8.50, from my recollection. A normal transcript for a defended matter can run into hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and that is a very large cost to the Legal Aid Commission. As the Attorney knows, I established, whilst I was in my former role, an interdepartmental-interagency committee to see whether we could get some competitive tendering, and to see whether current word translation facilities, by voice, which have been developed certainly by the Japanese computing intellectual electronic industry, could be applied here.
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