Submission to the Inquiry into lessons to be learned following the 2019-20 Australian bushfire season

27/05/2020

The New South Wales Bar Association has made a submission to the Senate Standing Committees on Finance and Public Administration Inquiry into lessons to be learned following the 2019-20 Australian bushfire season.

The Association’s submission focuses on the role of Australia’s justice system and legal assistance sector in aiding people impacted by the bushfires during the season, response and recovery. Crises including the 2019-20 bushfire season place urgent demands on legal aid, legal assistance and family violence and women’s legal services providers and the family law system that cannot be met without further resourcing, both during the disaster and the recovery. Put simply, systems and services that are not adequately resourced at the best of times simply cannot respond efficiently or with agility to meet increased demand during the worst of times.

The Association’s recommendations included that the Committees advocate to the Government to:

a. Increase and sustain funding for Legal Aid and legal assistance in 2020-21 and over the forward estimates;

b. Increase and sustain funding for family violence service providers in 2020-21 and over the forward estimates;

c. Increase and sustain funding and resourcing of the family law system in 2020-21 and over the forward estimates;

d. Maintain and adequately fund accessible family law services and court access for regional Australia, to provide specialist assistance to children, families and survivors of family violence;

e. Fund the appointment of additional judicial officers, including specialist family law judges, to reflect the expansion and meet the workload of the family law courts;

f. Carefully consider and promptly respond to recommendations from the Australian Law Reform Commission’s landmark Review of the Family Law system to improve collaboration, coordination and integration between Commonwealth and State family law systems, including family support services and family violence and child protection systems.

Read the Association’s submission here

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