Huo Raymond: Legal Services Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Huo Raymond: Legal Services Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:658;Page:7390] 
RAYMOND HUO (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to take a call to support the Legal Services Amendment Bill. This bill was introduced by the previous Labour Government and was drafted in very sad and tragic circumstances. I have heard members acknowledge the matter where the family of a victim was asked to repay $19000 in legal aid. The then Labour Minister of Justice the Hon Annette King asked the Secretary for Justice for an urgent report examining what changes were needed to ensure that victims were treated in a caring and compassionate way. The Legal Services Agency subsequently wrote to the family of that victim saying that the debt would be written off and the family’s circumstances changed significantly. Against that background the Legal Services Amendment Bill was introduced. 
The bill amends the Legal Services Act 2000 in respect of the legal aid scheme. Amendments include: first ensuring that victims of crime attending a Parole Board hearing or coronial inquest are not subject to financial eligibility testing; secondly enabling the Legal Services Agency to write off legal aid debt at any time during legal proceedings rather than only when proceedings are concluded; and thirdly a new regulation-making power to enable the Governor-General to exempt particular classes of people from financial eligibility tests and repayment conditions. 
In the bill’s second reading I should say that although there was support for the general intent of the bill the Justice and Electoral Committee heard suggestions that it does not go far enough. Submitters sought further changes to either the legal aid scheme or to the wider justice system to provide more support for victims of crime. We acknowledged those suggestions but noted that many of them are outside of the scope of the bill. We further noted that reviews being undertaken by the Ministry of Justice of the legal aid system and the Victims’ Rights Act 2002 will hopefully cover those issues. We recommended inserting new clause 4A to clarify that section 7(1)(e)(v) of the principal Act applies to coronial inquests for the purposes of Part 3 of the Coroners Act 2006 and to hearings of the Parole Board. Section 7(1)(e)(v) of the principal Act enables legal aid to be granted for proceedings in certain administrative tribunals or judicial authorities where the Legal Services Agency considers legal representation is required and where the applicant would suffer financial hardship if aid was not granted. We recommended consequential amendments to clauses 5 and 6 of this bill as introduced and those amendments are important. 
The Legal Services Act was passed in October 2000 and it established the Legal Services Agency in February 2001. The aim was to ensure that legal aid services are delivered consistently and efficiently. The Legal Services Agency is responsible for helping people to access justice by funding legal aid initial criminal legal services and community law centres. It also produces law-related education and information. In the past year the agency helped 58314 people access legal services and made 73905 grants of legal aid. In addition to legal aid services the agency funded 766 lawyers to provide duty solicitor services. A duty solicitor assists people who have no legal representation at their first court appearance. The agency also funded 27 community law centres and together they delivered 80000 hours of casework 24000 hours of legal information services and 110000 hours of law-related education services to their communities. 
It is particularly important for us to ensure that ordinary Kiwis be able to access justice at a time when we are facing a big challenge in respect of issues concerning intergenerational equity.