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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-16 Daily Xml
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Legal Practitioners (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill

Final Stages

Consideration in committee of the Legislative Council's amendment.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: I move:

That the Legislative Council's amendment be agreed to.

I indicate that the government will accept the bill as amended by the Legislative Council. The effect of this is to prescribe the allocation of certain funds from interest accruing on legal practitioners' trust accounts. Those who have been following the debate would understand the background of this. The issue of funding to be available for legal services in South Australia should be placed on the record. The Legal Services Commission is a provider of legal services and is funded primarily from significant grants from both the federal and state government and also receives some allocation from the Fidelity Fund. The community legal centres in South Australia are also the beneficiaries of some allocation.

The immediate matter of concern is to ensure that any effect of the terms of this amendment is not adverse in respect of national agreements on legal assistance funding and moneys available for community legal centres. As a government, we will of course follow up those matters. That said, the matter has been clearly aired in the Legislative Council. There is effectively a desire for the Law Foundation of South Australia Inc. to be a continuing and prescribed beneficiary of the whole of the 10 per cent of available discretionary funds. As Attorney-General, I note the same and do not have anything further to add.

Mr PICTON: I rise to indicate that the opposition supports the Legal Practitioners (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill 2019, importantly, as amended by the Legislative Council. The original bill introduced by the Attorney-General made amendments to the formula that governs the allocation of the interest to curing on solicitor trust accounts. The practical effect of the amendment will be to reduce the amount paid to the Law Foundation of South Australia made under section 57A(2)(c) from 10 per cent of the funds to only 5 per cent, with an option to reduce it to zero at the Attorney-General's discretion, as the bill was originally constructed.

The Greens and SA-Best moved amendments in the other place to ensure that 10 per cent of the funds must be directed to the Law Foundation and 50 per cent of that funding must be applied to the provision of legal services to the community. Therefore, we are very happy to support these changes. This is something that we raised in the debate when it was previously in this chamber.

The Law Foundation distributes grants to organisations that provide direct legal services to the community. Unfortunately, there was a lot of overcomplication of the simple amendments. I think this probably could have been worked out beforehand. I hope that the government will support these amendments so that we can ensure that appropriate funding goes to the important work of the organisations that are supported through the foundation. I hope that continues into the future. Therefore, we support the amendment that has been moved by the Legislative Council.

Motion carried.

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