Key issues on SCAG agenda
14 November 2025
The Law Council of Australia welcomes the progress made by the Standing Council of Attorneys-General (SCAG) during its meeting today on several matters of national importance, including Working with Children Check reforms, gender-based violence, elder abuse and the use of AI in the Australian legal system.
“We particularly welcome SCAG’s discussion of legal aid preferred supplier fees,” Law Council of Australia Executive Member, Elizabeth Shearer said.
“Private practitioners are vital to the provision of legal aid services and we have called on all governments to review funding to ensure preferred supplier fees can be increased to a level that enables firms to continue to provide these services and remain sustainable.
“Therefore, we were pleased to learn SCAG has noted issues associated with the preferred supplier model, including equitable access to justice, particularly in regional, rural and remote areas; and agreed to explore possible solutions through a review of the model. We again emphasise that timing is critical here. There is an access to justice workforce crisis right now, and it needs to be urgently addressed.”
The Law Council also welcomes the discussion of the Closing the Gap Justice Targets and the release of the final report of the Bail and Remand Reform Working Group this afternoon.
“While we still need to closely review the detail of the report’s recommendations, we think it is important it was publicly released. We need to understand how national bail laws disproportionately impact First Nations incarceration rates and how this could be addressed,” Ms Shearer said.
“The question of whether someone charged with an offence should be granted bail requires a careful balancing of the rights of the accused person and the safety of the community.
“As recently observed by the Chief Justice of New South Wales, the criminal justice system takes as its starting point the fundamental proposition that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty and, generally speaking, should not be deprived of his or her liberty unless and until found guilty.
“Our system recognises that in some cases a person charged with an offence should be held in custody on remand, and we give Judges the difficult job of making this decision.
“The Law Council is concerned that governments across Australia are legislating to tip the balance and make bail the exception, rather than the rule. Judges are best placed to weigh up the risks of granting or denying bail in the individual circumstances, and we do ourselves a disservice when we impede their discretion.
“Remand rates are extraordinarily high across the country, particularly for children and young people. AIHW data indicates that an average of 80 per cent of children in detention are unsentenced, and that rates have increased in almost every state and territory in five years.
“Between 2020 and 2024, First Nations children made up 65 per cent of all children detained by state and territory governments, despite representing only 6.6 per cent of the wider population. Children with disability are also over-represented.
“Our community cannot progress on Closing the Gap Justice targets without a careful examination of this difficult issue, and the release of this report is an important step.”
Contact
Kristen Connell
P. 0400 054 227
E. kristen.connell@lawcouncil.au
Last Updated on 28/11/2025