A national legal aid program funded by all levels of the government has helped 430,000 Australians in 2023-24, new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows.
The National Legal Assistance Partnership’s scheme funds Legal Aid Commissions, Community Legal Centres, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services.
Over half (52 percent) were female, while 45 percent were male. Half were aged from 25 to 49, and a third identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.
A total of 69,869, or 16 percent of the total, received assistance from a duty solicitor in a court proceeding. Of that group, 58 percent were male and 41 percent female. The most common age group was 35 to 49 years old, which accounted for a third of the total.
Representation services—where a government-funded lawyer represented someone in a more complex matter—were provided to 64,165 or 15 percent of people.
Among those, 48 percent were male and 47 percent female. The largest group was aged between 35 and 49. Twenty percent received more than one such service in the year.
Parenting arrangements were the most common legal issue, representing 21 percent (75,829) of all completed services provided by Legal Aid Commissions during the year. This accounted for over half of all representation (56 percent) and duty lawyer services (54 percent).
Other common matters included family and domestic violence (8 percent), criminal law (7 percent), civil law (8 percent), and family law and consumer/finance disputes (5 percent).
There were 63,757 Indigenous people assisted during the year, of which 66 percent were male, and almost half of all clients were aged 24 to 44 years.
“These statistics do not reflect the true volume or type of legal need—met and unmet—of people across Australia,” the ABS noted.
Brian Steels, a criminologist formerly with Curtin University and now patron of the Asia Pacific Forum for Restorative Justice, said legal aid is often stretched to its limits.
The service is required to assist a diverse population across a massive area, which is particularly the case in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
“Legal Aid is a right that carries enormous responsibility to its funding source and especially to its vast array of clients,” Steels told The Epoch Times.
“It has to meet the challenges of a multicultural society where access via many languages calls upon interpreting and its associated difficulties.”
The provision of family and criminal law to people who can’t afford to hire lawyers also suffers because many law graduates avoid it.
“Many of these students want to study business and corporate law, where huge money is made, leaving legal aid to lawyers who share a common interest in social justice and responsibility,” Steels says, and the shortfall needs to be made up by law firms, who are usually paid for such work, being prepared to donate more of their time.
“I believe that more pro bono work for Legal Aid is crucial if we are to witness a fair and just system that meets the growing demands of our society.”
A more restorative approach would help reduce the need for lengthy and expensive court hearings, he believes, and might encourage more young lawyers into the work.
“Many of our law schools can only provide the basic skills. It is among the clientele that experience is gained and shared,” he said.
The current National Legal Assistance Partnership is set to expire on July 1, 2025.
It will be replaced by the National Access to Justice Partnership (NAJP), a new five-year agreement between the federal, state, and territory governments that will provide $3.9 billion (US$2.5 billion) over the next five years to support frontline legal assistance services.
