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Advocates express concern over proposed Legal Aid NT service cuts
Three prominent legal organisations in the Northern Territory have expressed their “collective grave concern” over Legal Aid NT’s pressing funding shortfall and have called for the government to act “swiftly”.
Grace Robbie
The Northern Territory’s three peak legal organisations have jointly composed a letter addressed to Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby urging the government to take immediate action to address Legal Aid NT’s pressing funding crisis.
This comes after ABC reported that Legal Aid NT’s former acting director, Fiona Hussin, sent a letter to key stakeholders informing them that the organisation will need to reduce its services starting from 1 January 2025 due to insufficient funding from the NT government.
This is significant as, according to Legal Aid NT’s Annual Report 2022–2023, the organisation provided a total of 36,366 services in that reporting year, with 91 per cent of the cases they assisted being for people aged between 18 and 64.
The ABC also revealed that the proposed changes will result in Legal AId NT ceasing to accept any new adult clients facing criminal charges and will terminate legal aid for any cases concerning adults listed for trial or hearing beyond next year.
Last week, the heads of the NT Bar Association, Law Society NT, and Criminal Lawyers Association of the NT sent a joint letter to the NT Attorney-General expressing their “grave concern” about Legal Aid NT ceasing to provide certain services.
The legal group’s letter outlined 12 “profound, immediate and wide-reaching impact[s]” the Legal Aid NT changes will have, not only on the community but also on lawyers in the territory.
This included the legal bodies warning that the proposed changes would result in “a period of chaos and uncertainty” as defendants currently with Legal Aid being informed that they are no longer being represented in courts.
The letters also detailed that the wellbeing of numerous local attorneys would be affected, cases without legal representation would experience delays, proceedings that could go forward would be prolonged, prosecutors and courts would have to handle additional responsibilities, victims would have to endure longer waits for justice, and some trials would be unable to proceed.
However, they have expressed that they are “encouraged” to hear Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro’s recent comments that “for a strong and safe community, we need a robust legal aid system”.
The organisations expressed that they feel “fortunate … that the Chief Minister understands how the interconnecting parts of the justice system operate and the significance of legal aid in a just, fair and safe society”.
During a press conference held last Tuesday (8 October), the Chief Minister highlighted the NT government’s commitment to addressing the funding challenges faced by Legal Aid NT.
“I don’t know where Legal Aid [is] getting this fictitious October deadline from,” Finocchiaro said.
“We’re working with them, and we know that they’ve got a contract to deliver services, and we’ll be holding them to account for that.”
