Brumby’s budget spin won’t fix struggling Vic legal system

Today’s announcement by John Brumby and Rob Hulls about legal aid and extra judges will do little to help a legal system struggling to cope with Victoria’s soaring levels of violent crime.

“Under John Brumby, violent crime is rising, court waiting lists are growing and it is taking longer and longer to bring criminals to justice,” Shadow Attorney-General Robert Clark said today.

“The claimed ‘increase’ in legal aid funding announced by Labor appears to be a continuation for two more years of one-off funding announced in last year’s Budget and will provide no significant increase for legal aid over current funding levels,” Mr Clark said.

“The extra judges and magistrates announced by the government represent an increase of less than three per cent in the number of Victoria’s judges and magistrates, which will barely dent Victoria’s ever-lengthening criminal case waiting lists.

“Criminal case waiting lists have grown by 36 per cent since 2003 and are under great pressure from Victoria’s soaring levels of violent crime.

“Victoria now has Australia’s longest criminal case waiting lists in every court in the state – for Supreme Court appeals, for County Court trials, in the Magistrates Court and the Children’s Court – and at 30 June last year there were more than 42,500 criminal cases awaiting trial in Victoria’s courts, compared with just 26,085 cases in NSW.

“Victoria Legal Aid may well come under more pressure in the coming financial year if the Commonwealth fails to continue its own one-off funding, or if funding to legal aid from the Public Purpose Fund – comprised mainly of interest earned on clients’ money held by solicitors in their trust accounts – is further cut in the aftermath of the global economic downturn.

“If John Brumby and the Rob Hulls are serious about proper legal aid funding, they need to stop claiming one-off announcements as funding increases and put legal aid funding on a long-term sustainable basis.

“Both State and Federal Labor boast about their commitment to access to justice but fail to match their talk with action,” Mr Clark said.