Logie Jan; Faafoi KrisJAN LOGIE (Green): Thank you Mr Chair. The Minister might be relieved to know I'm going to break up my questions this time rather than give you a full barrage of them. Firstly I really want to acknowledge that usually when we're talking about justice it's about a crime that's made it into the front line and it's usually a really emotive issue. But people don't tend to connect to the workings of our court system and our legal aid processes in the same way. But they are at the heart of our justice system the rule of law and our ability to access our human rights and are really I think undervalued or under-represented in our public discourse.We know that still currently the wait times and the expense of accessing the courts remains a huge barrier for many New Zealanders. The Greens supported of course significant lifts to community law centre funding and the human rights tribunal last term. But we do know that this is still not meeting the needs of marginalised people in our country at the moment. In particular I'd like to raise the access to justice issues for disabled people where legal aid rates are low hours are low and accommodations for people with disabilities are virtually non-existent. While additional funding was provided for disabled clients in care-of-child cases in 2019 all of that funding amounted to $150 per case. That's about a half-hour of a lawyer's time which clearly is not even a drop in the bucket when it comes to ensuring the rights of those people. Legal aid disadvantages disabled people as it is at the moment and combined with high rates of discrimination very low rates of employment and poverty incomes and to coin a phrase from a lawyer I spoke to working in this area it's an absolute disaster. So the Greens are really interested to know if the Minister is planning to review the legal aid policy which was found to be unlawful by the Court of Appeal under Judith Collins as the justice Minister but is still in place and whether the Minister is planning to restore the full mandate of community law to provide legal representation and resource them appropriately to be able to do that.Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Justice): One of the common arguments or issues that is raised with me whenever I'm engaging with stakeholders in the legal fraternity is the pressure that is on legal aid. We understand the pressure it is having on the legal workforce and also the pressure that it is putting on people who are seeking to access justice and get their justice heard in a timely and fair manner which is why in the Budget we have put an increase of I think close to $48 million in the first year. I think the member may have spoken to that. The likes of the Criminal Bar Association and the judiciary whenever we meet have been saying for some time I understand that the legal aid system is under pressure and we continue to hear that. We were able to answer some of that call in this year's Budget but that doesn't necessarily mean that the call of the sector and certainly those who are seeking to access justice has been fully dealt with. So again it is one of the many challenges that we would like to deal with as we look at some of the long-term settings for access to justice and making sure that timely justice has been given out as well. I would also say that it's not just legal aid issues that I think are causing delays in the system as well. I think there are some legacy IT issues within the court system especially in the likes of the Family Court which are causing delays to hearings and proceedings being brought to an end. And while there might be warring parents or guardians in those situations we also have to be mindful that there are children in those situations. So it's certainly something that as the Minister of Justice I'm taking a very keen interest in. That won't be an easy fix because something like scheduling and making sure we do have an IT system that can make sure we're not just working on papers is not going to happen overnight within a system that has very much been reliant on papers in its operation for decades.So it is certainly something that the sector would like to see and again it's one of the challenges that as the Minister of Justice I have at the moment—trying to get an opportunity to deal with that. But I certainly think making a start with those kinds of issues will help set a path for timely and effective justice.