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

I will come to your question immediately but, if I may, let me just say this in two sentences: This government maintained legal assistance funding in real terms. The only reductions in the amount of money going to the sector are as a result of the funding cliff decided upon by Mr Dreyfus in the last Labor budget.

Coming directly to the subject matter of your question, the problem of self-represented litigants is a problem with which judges, practitioners and everyone in the family law system are extremely familiar. That has been a feature of the system, by the way, for many years. It is why it is desirable to ensure, as the government has done, that legal assistance funding is maintained at real levels. It is why it was such a disastrous decision to build into future legal assistance funding the funding cliff that the last Labor Attorney-General, Mr Mark Dreyfus, did. (Time expired)