George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

It is a priority issue, as Senator Barnett rightly says. Every time we hear a number with a billion after it being committed by the Rudd Labor government on expenditures which are not always wise and not always economically efficient, just think that a quarter of that, a quarter of a billion dollars—what for this extravagant government seems almost like small change—is what it would take to fix legal aid in this country. So why don’t they do it? Not only do they not do it, while they commit resources extravagantly and wastefully elsewhere, they defund the state and territory legal aid commissions and they extravagantly waste money on the Commonwealth procurement of legal services themselves. It is an appalling misallocation resources for which the government must take responsibility.

Finally, I am glad that Senator Barnett raised the pro bono contribution of the private legal profession, which is seldom acknowledged. People, I think, particularly Labor politicians, tend to delight in the caricature of lawyers as greedy, mercenary individuals with no social conscience. I am sure there are such people in the legal profession, but most members of the legal profession I know, including the big commercial law firms, by the way, take the pro bono obligation very, very seriously. There are a lot of the most successful and wealthiest lawyers in this country who devote a substantial proportion of their professional time to pro bono work. It is time that that was acknowledged, and I am glad this report does so. I seek leave to continue my remarks at a later date.

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