Little Andrew: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 06 June 2013. Volume:690;Page:10873. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW LITTLE (Labour): Let me quickly acknowledge Mr Assistant Speaker Robertson in light of your announcement earlier today—and I know this will not be the time for lengthy acknowledgments—your enormous and huge contribution not only to the House but to its good order. It is an honour to be speaking in your presence and under your chairmanship this afternoon.I think the most interesting observation to make about the last speaker the Hon Nathan Guy is that for once we have a National MP who understands what a drought is who understands not only what a drought is but what its impact is on the local region and on the economy. You see the last lengthy drought we had was in 2007. Every time this Government recounts our economic fortunes going back to around about that time it never ever talks about the lengthy drought that caused the recession that took place in this country even before the global financial crisis. This is a Government that has a selective memory. It did not understand what was happening then and frankly if you look at this Budget it barely understands what is happening now.We heard the ridiculous comments about ACC from the last speaker and also from the Minister for ACC earlier this afternoon. It was as if by magic the Government has turned round this great corporation that is so important to the wealth of the nation. It has done nothing of the sort—it has done nothing of the sort. Government members contrived a crisis that never existed they hiked the levies they have ripped off every worker and business in this country and they have now realised that they over-egged the pudding. When they got advice at the end of last year to reduce the levies they thought: “Oh we don’t want to admit we’re wrong. We’ll have to blame the officials but we’ll do that further down the track. We’ll leave the current levies in place and we’ll over-levy the nation to the tune of $1 billion to $2 billion a year for another year while the economy is trying to recover.” That is how short-sighted and frankly how shallow they are.I want to talk about the area of justice and the justice group of votes. They are very important and what is happening there is a crying shame. We have seen that the biggest proportion of Vote Justice goes into legal aid. Legal aid is very important. It applies in a number of ways. It applies to those who are impecunious—those who are on low incomes—and those who are facing the full force of the State through police prosecutions and Crown prosecutions and they are entitled to assistance to defend themselves especially when their liberty is at stake. Legal aid plays a very important part.Legal aid was cut by $15 million in last year’s Budget. It has been cut by another $12 million a year in this Budget and the trend is a continuing cut in that area. When we see the figures—the new legal aid regime took effect last year—and when we see what the impact has been the number of legal aid lawyers has fallen dramatically by nearly 300 in a year. Those are lawyers who were available to do legal aid work who are no longer doing it—and not just any lawyers but senior lawyers as well. So bad has it been in a single year that the Government now has had to put together a special programme and a special package to draw back senior lawyers who have since left the system because it has got so hard and most important to them it has become so unfair.The number of firms doing legal aid work is falling rapidly because partners in law firms are now saying: “Listen the time it takes to make the application and to get a fair rate is just too hard for us.” Although this is good for young developing lawyers—put them on a bit of legal aid work and give them a bit of courtroom experience under the supervision of senior partners—it has all just become too hard and law firms are rapidly retreating from that type of work no matter how important it is constitutionally and for our system of justice.But one of the most important areas in which we are yet to see the impact of this which we will see under this Budget is the area of family law because this Government is now putting through its legislation that is about minimising the role of lawyers in this very difficult area of work. It is an area of work where the people who are the users of the justice system in the Family Court—usually separating parents—need not just legal advice but support as well. This Government now has a programme that is about minimising it and reducing it and it plans to significantly cut the cost of legal aid in the family law section.The reason it will justify that is to say: “The warring parents can get on and do it themselves with a facilitator and we don’t have to have independent representation of children any more. We’re going to scrap most of that because the parents who are tied up in the stress the distress and the tragedy of the separation—well they’ll be in a perfectly fit state to represent the best interests of the children.” That is the thinking of this Government. So it will cut legal aid to the parents and it will cut the access to legal advice on the representation of children. They will no longer have independent advice. Sure the Government will save money; it will save money in that area but we know where it is going to be picked up. It will be picked up in a whole heap of other areas: in the criminal justice area in the health area and in other areas of Government spending. Of course on top of all this we have had the mishandling of the legal aid project which is now under yet another expensive legal appeal.The other area that is very important is the community law centres. That is another area that has been struggling for some time to keep the attention of the Government. The last Minister of Justice the Hon Simon Power did a good job of providing ongoing funding to the community law centres because he recognised the important role they play. This Minister is doing her level best to make it harder and harder for community law centres. So sure we have got funding for another year. The Budget says there is funding for a year after that but it is subject to conditions. The community law centresnow have to meet a whole new heap of expectations guidelines and rules. They are required to get out of the education mode that is so important to the work they do particularly with things like youth law and disability law where the heart of their work is educative work. That will go over time and they will be left with giving interim advice to the people who walk up to the community law centres.The funding that is in the Budget this year is conditional upon making changes and the community law centres know that they are now up for a major upheaval and it will be in the area of consolidations of centres and mergers and that is going to be very difficult. It will take away the whole notion of community from community law centres if this Government mishandles it or at least handles it as badly as it has done the legal aid project. Let us not make that mistake again. Let us not let this Government make that mistake again. It would be a travesty if it does.I want to talk about victims’ services. We heard the Minister of Justice earlier today and indeed yesterday making an announcement about victims’ services. The only thing she talked about was restorative justice. It is the quasi-parsonical aspect of criminal justice. She acted in her quasi-parsonical way to say that the Government has put $4 million into restorative justice.But what about the other aspects of victims’ rights? You see she announced yesterday that there is another $739000 extra going into victims’ rights and you know what? That is money that the Government has already got. It is money it collected from the offender levy. It has collected so much of it and spent so little that it has been able to beef up its total spending this year by $5 million. That is the unspent amount of the offender levy. It was a great idea to collect it but the Government does not know how to use it.Sure there has got to be much better support for victims and for victims’ services but the Government is playing ducks and drakes and it is playing with smoke and mirrors if I can mix my metaphors in that way. There is no extra $739000 and this Government’s commitment to victims and victims’ rights can be seen in its Victims’ Orders Against Violent Offenders Bill which is the biggest joke around. It is going to cost victims. It requires the victims of serious crime to step up and take the initiative against the offenders who have caused them considerable harm humiliation and injury. They have to pay for it and the threshold for getting it is so high that very few will actually be ordered. It is a cynical attempt at pushing the criminal justice button out in the community without making a commitment to do anything at all. If there is one thing this Government should be funding it is the processes under that bill that we are yet to debate.Finally I want to touch on the Crown Law Office under Vote Attorney-General. We are seeing the vote for Crown law reduce heavily because the Budget for Crown solicitors is being cut massively. Some Crown solicitor offices are suffering cuts of up to 35 percent—35 percent. We know what the price of that will be: fewer prosecutions on fewer charges more criminals getting away with it and sentencing that will reflect the fewer charges. Actually it will do no good for criminal justice and no good for peace and good order in our society. The Budget is a joke.