Faafoi Kris: Legal Services Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Faafoi Kris: Legal Services Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:670;Page:17030] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to speak to Part 3 of the Legal Services Bill. The previous two speakers focused on the review authority which I understand is contained under clause 86 of the bill. I want to change the focus of the Committee to clause 79 of the bill which establishes a safeguard for those who are applying for legal services under the bill but first I will have to refer back to Part 1 of the bill to talk about its spirit. 
The purpose of the bill as set out in clause 3 is “to promote access to justice by establishing a system that—(a) provides legal services to people of insufficient means; and (b) delivers those services in the most effective and efficient manner.” I think members on both sides of the Chamber want to ensure that that happens. But I think we need to make sure that we do not get into a situation where the legal services offered under this bill become second rate whether that be because of the quality of those who represent the applicants or the amount of resources that are afforded to that representation. The Hon Simon Power was in the Chamber earlier during the debate and he mentioned that there was a shortfall of about $405 million for legal aid services over the next 5 years. That of course is a major concern to members on this side of the Committee because as I said we do not want there to be a perception of a second-rate service when it comes to the legal aid that is offered under the bill. 
We are offering broad support to the bill but clause 79 allows the secretary to establish a performance review committee and “The function of the committee is to assess and advise the Secretary of any matter referred to the committee by the Secretary relating to the performance of a provider.” The committee has a primary function of making sure that the applicants—those who seek legal aid—get the services that they are after. In my dealings as the MP for Mana I have seen that those who seek legal aid services—and remember we are talking about people with insufficient means to get legal services on their own through no fault of their own—may be ignorant of the law and the processes around seeking legal aid. We need to make sure that the quality and processes that are in place when they seek legal aid are top-notch. 
Going back to the performance review committee as I said some of the people who seek legal advice and legal aid have insufficient means. It is a very important safeguard for those people to have the ability to go to a review committee and have 3 months in which to ensure that they are heard. They can gather the information that is required over that 3-month period in order to make sure that their application or the review of their case is heard. In terms of the performance of the lawyers who offer legal aid under the bill anyone who provides legal advice must be approved by the secretary. That is not to say that anything that lawyers offer in terms of legal aid will be adequate. So it is great that there is a safeguard mechanism within the legislation to make sure that those people who do not feel they have received adequate resources or quality legal advice from those who offered legal advice to them can go somewhere to make sure that their concerns are heard.