Ngaro Alfred: Legal Assistance Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNgaro Alfred: Legal Assistance Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 02 July 2013. Volume:691;Page:11595. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ALFRED NGARO (National):I rise to take a call on the Legal Assistance Amendment Bill especially in regards to its title clause. I actually do agree with the Hon Lianne Dalziel. I think that hearing those real cases of real people and real places and the impact that they have is important because when we are doing this we take those into consideration with the regulatory impact statement. The member Kris Faafoi talked about the word “sustainability”. If the member would actually read the bill he would see that the intent talks about the importance that legal assistance be affordable into the future and available to those who need it most. I think that really is our concern.When we look at the ongoing growing costs that there are we know that for instance the honourable member Lianne Dalziel and former member of Parliament Charles Chauvel petitioned the Minister of Justice to consider pausing the progress of the Legal Assistance Amendment Bill so that we could take into account the review that was taking place in the Ministry of Justice in regards to the Family Court. It is acknowledged that that time was taken the Family Court review was then conducted and completed and then therefore the Legal Assistance Amendment Bill was taken into consideration with that. So it is important to be able to see that the fact is that when we talk about electorates our communities that we are talking about—Tim Macindoe: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I am sorry to interrupt my colleague but ever since he started speaking the level of interjection particularly from Mr Cunliffe has been unreasonable and I would ask you—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): I am the judge of that.ALFRED NGARO: It very much was the concern of the Justice and Electoral Committee when we heard the submissions to ensure that legal aid was available but most important not just for now but into the future as well. Sustainability was absolutely important to us. We realise the importance of that at the moment. The budget for 2011 included $103.5 million in short-term funding while longer-term sustainability issues were addressed through both this bill and the wider review of the Family Court which would include $138 million over 4 years.We know that adjusting the eligibility for legal aid was important and it does make it sustainable in this. The reforms include tightening the merits test by no longer needing to take into account the interests of other vulnerable parties and adjusting thespecial circumstances consideration in the means test for family and civil cases so that it focuses on expensive cases. We know—and I know Mr Faafoi knows in his community in the electorate of Mana and even the legal fraternity there talks about it—that in the number of cases and for the number of our people who needed legal aid and should have accessed legal aid this bill will not remove it from them. In fact if anything it will make it easier and more accessible and if he reads the details he will see that. He will see that. What is important is that—Hon David Cunliffe: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I believe that under the Standing Orders governing misrepresentation the member has misrepresented the Government’s position—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): No sit down. Look that is not a point of order; those are debating points.ALFRED NGARO: Thank you Mr Chair for your wise counsel. We know that adjusting eligibility for legal aid is important. The reforms include removing the requirement to index means thresholds to movements in the Consumers Price Index and simplifying the administration of funding of legal aid for offenders for Parole Board appearances so that all such cases are classified as criminal legal aid. This bill increases payments by legally aided people. This change encourages people to actually take consideration of whether they need legal aid or not and to think about whether they wish to proceed with litigation and it provides incentives for repayment of legal aid.We believe that the changes that are being made through this legislation in consideration of the wider context of the Family Court review and the Family Court Proceedings Reform Bill not only are sustainable for the future but also make legal aid accessible to our communities of need and to our vulnerable communities. I commend this clause.