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As the lead-up to the 2025 federal election intensifies, the Law Council of Australia has outlined the key priorities the Australian legal profession wants the political parties to focus on should they secure office.
With the 2025 federal election scheduled for 3 May, the Australian legal profession is making its voice heard by revealing the key issues and priorities it wants the next elected government to address upon taking office.
The Law Council of Australia has released its 2025 Federal Election Call to Parties, urging political parties and independent candidates to commit to the reforms deemed essential to the legal profession to “improve law and policy for the betterment of the Australian community and our democracy”.
The president, Juliana Warner, voiced strong confidence in the importance of these recommendations, asserting that they have the potential to “make Australia a fairer and more just society”.
One of the Law Council’s central recommendations is for political parties to prioritise improving access to justice by providing the “long-overdue funding” needed for legal assistance services.
Warner stressed the urgency of addressing this issue, explaining that these services are essential for Australians seeking assistance for “family law disputes, removing themselves from harm, enforcing their employment rights, or making sure they have a roof over their head”.
A specific recommendation from the Law Council is for political parties to commit to establishing a “financially sustainable model of legal aid grants to private practitioners”, ensuring they can continue to provide “high-quality” legal assistance services to Australians nationwide.
The Law Council explained the importance of this reform, noting that the private legal profession has become “indispensable” in delivering legal aid, with these practitioners currently handling 72 per cent of legal aid-approved matters – amounting to over 100,000 cases.
Given that most of these practitioners operate within small businesses, Warner highlighted the significant strain they are under, with many reaching “breaking point” and “considering walking away” from legal aid altogether unless funding levels are substantially increased.
Another critical area of focus for the Law Council is the need for greater support for rural, regional, and remote lawyers (RRR), asserting that they “deserve the same level of support and access to justice, as those in metropolitan areas”.
The Law Council pointed out that a pressing challenge in the delivery of legal services to RRR areas stems from the difficulty in “attracting and retaining” lawyers. This issue is especially crucial as “one-third of Australians live outside our capital cities”, yet the Law Council revealed that “fewer than 10 per cent of lawyers practice in an RRR location”.
To address these challenges, the Law Council has recommended that political parties commit to creating a “HELP debt relief scheme” for legal practitioners residing and working in RRR areas to “incentivise” the recruitment and retention of “qualified lawyers in underserviced RRR areas”.
Criticising Australia’s child justice policy as “inconsistent, ineffective, unsupported by evidence, and non-compliant with rule of law principles”, the Law Council has called for the establishment of a national child justice response.
Despite recent policy changes in several Australian jurisdictions, the Law Council argues these measures “feed into a cycle of offending, punishment and recidivism”, ultimately failing to promote community safety and overlooking the fact that many of these “children are frequently themselves victims of crime”.
One standout recommendation put forward by the Law Council is for political parties to commit to raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility at the federal level from 10 to 14, “for all offences, without exception”. This would ensure a more appropriate response to “the complex needs of 10- to13-year-olds, instead of incarcerating them”.
To further strengthen the rule of law and uphold the Australian constitutional system, the Law Council has called for the establishment of a standalone Federal Judicial Commission.
This body, the Law Council explained, would be empowered and equipped to address “any allegation of lack of competency, serious misconduct or corruption in the federal courts”.
However, the Law Council stressed that the role of the Federal Judicial Commission would also extend to support the “provision of education, training and support for judicial officers”.
In the coming weeks, Warner shared that “the Law Council will be asking parties and independent candidates for formal responses to each of the recommendations contained in its Call to Parties”.
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Grace Robbie
