The Law Society of Western Australia Gala Dinner and Annual Awards Celebration for the Legal Profession
Speech delivered by Law Council of Australia President, Mr Greg McInytre SC at the Western Australia Gala Dinner in Perth, on 6 September 2024.
"I acknowledge Country in words taught to me by Emeritus Professor Dr Len Collard:
Kaia
Nyunh kaditj ngulluck nyinniny
Whadjuk Noongar boodjah Nyuny burrunnyin quop kaditj kanya
Nitja baarl birrdiya baarl boodja
Koora yeye borrdahwan
Kaia
It is a pleasure to be here with you tonight celebrating our profession and honouring some of our outstanding colleagues.
The Law Council and our Constituent Bodies, including those here in WA, having launched a campaign to restore funding for our legal assistance sector, welcome today’s announcement by the Prime Minister and Attorney-General Dreyfus that a Heads of Agreement has been signed for a new National Access to Justice Partnership, and strongly support the focus on uplifting legal assistance services responding to gender-based violence and achieving pay parity across the legal assistance sector.
This is a sector that has been chronically under-resourced over many years, and we acknowledge the progress made towards a new agreement commencing in the next financial year, which will provide much-needed certainty to legal assistance services in the sector, The Commonwealth’s confirmed additional commitment of nearly $800 million over five years represents a substantial increase on previous years and will go some way to addressing key recommendations arising from Dr Warren Mundy’s recent independent review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership.
However, after years of stagnant Commonwealth funding in this area, more is needed.
We applaud this significant injection of funding, and the Attorney-General’s ongoing commitment to the cause, but it is not enough and falls well short of the amounts recommended. We strongly encourage the Commonwealth to continue to work with its State and Territory counterparts to build on this momentum and ensure that each of Dr Mundy’s recommendations is implemented in full."
Read the full speech below.
Last Updated on 11/09/2024