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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3086 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: I understand, Mr Speaker, that the speeches were circulated, as agreed previously, to members at 9 o'clock this morning. It is a pity that members opposite are not prepared to abide by their - - -

Ms McRae: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. I do not have a copy of that speech. If Mr Humphries makes those claims, I would like to see where they are.

MR SPEAKER: The Chair is not involved in this.

MR HUMPHRIES: You had a copy for your party spokesperson. That is a problem for your party, Ms McRae. Mr Speaker, the Legal Practitioners Act 1970 provides for the regulation of the legal profession in the Australian Capital Territory, including rules for the admission to practise of barristers and solicitors and conditions on the issue of practising certificates. The Act does not take account of the impact of the mutual recognition scheme on the admission by the Supreme Court of legal practitioners and the issue of practising certificates by the Law Society of the ACT.

The mutual recognition scheme is intended to produce free movement of goods and service providers in a national market in Australia and, to this end, provides for the recognition of the trades and professions in Australia. In relation to the legal profession, the operation of the scheme should allow a person who may practise law in one Australian jurisdiction to practise in another jurisdiction without the need for further admission formalities. The Legal Practitioners (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1997 will amend the Legal Practitioners Act to take account of the mutual recognition scheme.

The Legal Practitioners (Amendment) Act 1997 provides for the practice in the Territory of legal practitioners from other jurisdictions in Australia. I will shortly be bringing to the Assembly a further Bill which will regulate the practice of foreign law by foreign solicitors in the Territory. Today's Bill will complement the earlier amending Act and the foreign solicitors Bill, so-called. Taken together, the effect will be the opening up of the profession to competition.

A problem for the implementation of a national legal practice scheme is that each State and Territory provides different qualifications for a person's first admission to practise. In order to ensure that legal practitioners throughout Australia have comparable qualifications and experience, the Consultative Committee of State and Territory Law Admitting Authorities has proposed the adoption of uniform admission rules by all States and Territories. The rules regulate the admission to practise of legal practitioners from Australia, from New Zealand and from other overseas countries. Implementation of the rules will mean that each jurisdiction can be confident that all legal practitioners in an increasingly national profession are qualified at the same level.

With one exception, the Bill will adopt the rules proposed by the committee as those for the admission to practise of legal practitioners in the Territory. The exception is that the Bill does not include those rules which provide for the admission of overseas legal practitioners other than those from New Zealand. This is in line with the current arrangements under the Act which provide for the admission of New Zealand legal practitioners and which do not provide for those from other external jurisdictions.

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