te Heuheu Georgina: Legal Services Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
te Heuheu Georgina: Legal Services Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
[Volume:630;Page:2220] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 Part 2 of the Legal Services Amendment Bill (No 2) deals with transitional provisions. It is made up of clause 43 and clause 44. 
Clause 43 deals with applications for legal aid and grants of legal aid made before the commencement of this Act. Basically it gives assurance that the provisions of this Act—once the bill comes into force—will not affect applications for legal aid or grants of legal aid made before the commencement date. The commencement date as we see in clause 2 is a date to be appointed by the Governor-General by Order in Council; obviously it looks forward to the time when the bill passes into law. As clause 43(2) states this Act will not affect applications for legal aid or grants of legal aid made before its commencement. That raises the question of whether those applications would be better dealt with under the new Act. I am sure my colleague Chris Finlayson will have something to say about that. For applications that are pending so to speak applicants will decide for themselves whether they are in a better position now than they would be under the new Act. Perhaps the Minister in the chair Pete Hodgson will take a call to clarify—[ 
Interruption 
]—what a shame—clause 43(2). Maybe it is not as complicated as it seems on the face of it. So that deals with that. 
Clause 43(3) states: “Sections 40 and 41 of the principal Act (as substituted by section 26 of the Legal Services Amendment Act (No 2) 2005) apply to any proceeding for which legal aid has been granted on or after the commencement date.” So the new Act will apply to any proceeding for which legal aid has been granted on or after the commencement date and that seemingly carries those proceedings over to the new legislation once it is passed. Again I wonder whether the Minister will take a call on that. He is usually an obliging Minister and I am sure he is in that frame of mind today. These transitional provisions—simple and short as they sometimes appear to be—can be quite tricky and it always helps to have the Minister clarify for the Opposition and certainly for me the impact of them. 
Let us look at clause 44 “Transitional provisions in relation to providers of legal services etc” in Part 2. I ask the Minister whether the provisions relating to legal service providers are carried over into the new legislation or dealt with under the old legislation. 
Those are three legitimate questions and it would not take the Minister all that long to clarify them. It would be very helpful if he did. But coming back to the thrust of the bill because after all the transitional provisions relate to the bill itself I say that there is disappointment on the part of the Opposition that this bill has not clarified matters or given certainty to those who are applicants for legal aid. They will enter the process not too much the wiser than they were under the old legislation as to whether they qualify. As I said in an earlier contribution that is not good for the law or for the system. Certainty is an underlying value for the National Party.