Government cuts to Appeal Costs Funds

Hansard: 18 September 2007 ASSEMBLY

Mr CLARK (Box Hill) — I rise to condemn the government’s planned cuts to the Appeal Costs Fund. The Appeal Costs Fund reimburses individuals who incur additional costs due to failures in the court system, such as having a decision overturned on appeal or if a trial cannot proceed on a scheduled day because there is no court or judge available or the prosecution is not ready.

Under a discussion paper issued by the Attorney-General in April this year the Appeal Costs Fund budget could be cut by more than half: from $7.3 million a year to $3.6 million. Victorians caught up in our court system are already suffering from growing waiting lists and delays, and now they risk having to bear even greater financial costs when their case is not able to be heard. These cuts will make it even harder for thousands of citizens, including the most financially disadvantaged Victorians, to access the legal system. Having exhausted the available funds on their first trial, they may be forced to go to court without a lawyer when their case is rescheduled or goes on appeal.
It is not just individual citizens who will suffer. These proposals could effectively cut the funds available to Victorian Legal Aid by around $1 million a year. If it is no longer reimbursed if a trial cannot proceed, it will have to find the funds for the rescheduled trial out of its own budget.

The Attorney-General must know that this is unjust and contradicts everything he has said about accessible and affordable justice. The Attorney-General likes to think he is tough, but being tough is not about bullying young women in pubs. It is about standing up for what you believe, even if it involves some pain.

If the Attorney-General is truly tough, he needs to wear some pain on this. He must either cut the ballooning bureaucracy in his department or make clear to the Premier that these cuts are not acceptable — —

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Ingram) — Order! The member’s time has expired.