Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. As I think the only member of the criminal bar in this House I—Dr Emily Henderson: No.GOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN: No—someone else is a member of the criminal bar over there. I did just get a text message from the Ministry of Justice asking me if I was available for urgent criminal matters between 24 December and 9 January which I will not be.But maybe I'll say: as the only member of the House who was in court the day the Court of Appeal heard the case against the National Party's legal aid policy that's reflected in this bill when it was found to be unlawful. It was found by that court that the then justice Minister the Hon Judith Collins had adopted a legal aid policy whose focus went outside of the discretion afforded by the Legal Services Act. The purpose of the Legal Services Act which affords that discretion is limited to providing high-quality legal services to accused persons who can't afford it. It was found that the National Party's legal aid policy was focused on saving money.SPEAKER: Yeah I don't think the member should be referring to it in that manner. If it's a law that is passed by this Parliament then it's the Government's policy or Act.GOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN: The legal aid policy was adopted only by the Minister so it was a discretionary policy. But I will move on from that.The point of this bill is to return our legal services and our legal aid policy to a point where the focus is providing high-quality legal services for those who can't afford them without this added cost and this added purpose of past legal aid policy that was to make money for the Government at the same time. That's not part of what legal aid is for.Access to justice—which people who qualify for legal aid have shown they are deserving of—for free should not include an interest that makes money for a Government. It never should have been about that. People shouldn't be remortgaging their homes because they face a really lengthy criminal trial but that's what's happening in this country.And the other thing that we need to remember is that this bill is about victims too. So it is shocking to see the Opposition—who go on and on about the rights of victims—voting against this because actually this interest and this fee apply to those applying for protection orders in the Family Court. So why—why—should a person who has proven that they can't afford legal services and who needs a protection order be paying interest forever maybe? She's already proven that she doesn't have a lot of income. Our legal aid bars are set very very low on income. So what isn't she paying for as she pays this interest to us as the Government?This bill brings us a little bit further in line with what our legal aid policy should be about which is access to justice. And legal aid is provided everywhere else that we compare ourselves to on human rights and on access to justice issues—not with another weird little added incentive of Governments making money. It's just legal services. You get to choose your lawyer. You get to go to court. You get to have a defence. You get to apply for your protection order with access to legal aid. Why was there ever a provision that was focused on making money off of those people off of those services off of that access to justice? It was always shameful for the Government who introduced it.This brings us a little bit back into line. But what we need to see is reform of our legal aid services and legal aid policy to bring it fully in line with what the court found. That decision still stands.Legal aid needs to be free. It needs to be far more accessible. People need to be able to choose their lawyers which they mostly can't in this country. Lawyers need to be able to bill the time that they spend rather than be incentivised to spend less time on cases with caps on legal aid.So this is a first step that I do commend to the House. But I am very disappointed in the Opposition for leaving out those who need access to justice—including victims—from being protected against this weird cost. But I am hopeful that the Minister the Hon Kiritapu Allan will continue this work on reforming legal aid. So I commend it to the House.