Page 4945 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
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the Commonwealth essentially for a Commonwealth purpose, you want to know whether sufficient funds went to supporting debt defence matters, domestic violence concerns and the variety of personal injury matters that afflict those who have access to legal aid funds.
I take this opportunity, of course, to commend the work of the marvellous band of people who work in the legal aid service. They work very hard. They are a marvellous bunch of men and women, including their support staff. If you go past the Acton premises you will see the lights on there all the time - very late into the evening. They work extraordinary hours, under grim pressure and at the oppressive end of the legal spectrum. They are nearly always defending or attempting to gain justice from a better heeled litigant with a large law firm. They need our support and commendation at all times.
MR STEFANIAK (9.09): Reasonably briefly, I certainly would agree with Mr Collaery's last comments, having done a fair amount of legal aid work myself as a solicitor in New South Wales, in the Children's Court especially. Indeed, when I came down here and changed to prosecutions I was a bit surprised to lose my first cases because I thought, "Now at least I will win a few cases". But I am well and truly used to doing about 20 legal aid cases a day for various sorts of reprobates, and taking them through the system and trying to do the best one can. Knowing the Chief Executive Officer, Chris Staniforth, and his staff very well, having appeared against them, I would wholeheartedly endorse the comments Mr Collaery made as to their dedication, the good job they do and how hardworking they are.
Mr Collaery raised one other interesting point in relation to legal aid. In respect of the long running Winchester inquiry - or "royal commission" might be more appropriate - the Attorney told me that, luckily, we had spent only some $400,000 on it. I think some of that would probably be in relation to legal aid, because the so-called principal suspect went through, I think, about six different solicitors and was legally funded.
In terms of legal aid, a number of points should be made which are relevant to the Territory and which probably also apply Australia-wide. The first is that at present a lot of people miss out in the court system - not just the criminal system. If you have no assets and you have no job, you will basically be reasonably well looked after; you will get legal aid. If you are very well off, you will be able to afford the lawyer of your choice and do very well. If you are not so well off, you probably will not qualify for legal aid, you will not necessarily be able to afford the very expensive legal fees you might need to run a case and you are somewhat disadvantaged. This is something that I think we are seeing throughout Australia. I do not quite know how you counter that, but it is worth mentioning.
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