Ms Mary Heavey:

I will contribute briefly and then hand over to FLAC. Senator Flynn said we are here today to talk about accommodation and not necessarily access to justice but that is what CLM is about. Fundamentally, it is about access to justice and that is at the core of the work we do and all our recommendations. Those barriers to accessing justice were identified in 1977 in the Pringle report, which found that they were felt most acutely by marginalised communities. The issues are not only costs but relate exactly to the points the Senator raised, namely, intimidation of the legal world, inaccessibility of legal services, fear of not being taken seriously and not knowing that the issue you have is actually a legal issue. This goes back to our calls for reform of the civil legal aid scheme. We believe the scheme should be completely overhauled and that a community law-based model should be adopted. As my colleague Ms O'Sullivan said, there should be an outreach role that involves going out into the community. There is an education role as well, where people learn about their rights. Information and knowledge are not only empowering. Early advice can often resolve a matter when people know their position and know what their legal rights and entitlements are. We will also be calling for the civil legal aid scheme to be reformed to have a law reform function. Those kinds of broad asks underpin the specific recommendations in our submission on the reform of the civil legal aid scheme. That is a key priority for us and we encourage members to look at our submission in greater detail.