Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I welcome this section. This is the crux of the Bill, enabling the making of complaints to the ombudsman. As I stated on Second Stage, I welcome it because it provides for a necessary degree of oversight and scrutiny of what for a long time has been regarded as self-regulating professions.

I acknowledge the professions have made quite significant amendments to their own disciplinary procedures to allow for much greater input of laypersons to the extent of lay majorities, etc. At the same time the legal services ombudsman has been long recommended by many bodies and many reports over the years. The provisions in section 21 will provide an essential remedy for consumers of legal services and clients who feel they have been unfairly or badly treated by barristers or solicitors. As the Minister of State said on section 19, as with any new procedures, time will be needed to bed down the procedures and for members of the public to become aware of their existence.

I am glad to see subsection (6) allowing the ombudsman to accept complaints after the six-month limitation period where special circumstances exist. That will be important, especially in the first few years of the existence of this service for people who are not aware of the service. It may take longer for people to get around to submitting a complaint or they may simply be unaware of the existence of the procedure in the early years of the existence of the ombudsman.

I wonder about subsection (10): "A complaint to the Legal Services Ombudsman may be made by any person on behalf of another person." In light of Senator Norris's revelation that he has acted in the past as an amicus curiae — in the English courts it was called a McKenzie friend, a person who was not legally qualified who appeared on behalf of another person, and after the poll tax riots I recall many McKenzie friends appearing in the magistrates' courts in England — it strikes me that the provision could be problematic. Has the Minister of State any thoughts on it? How is the ombudsman to know? Clearly he or she must act in good faith in accepting a complaint but if it is made by a person who is not the person who made the original complaint to the Law Society or Bar Council under the earlier subsections, I wonder how that will work in practice if another person can then step in to make a complaint on behalf of the original complainant. I am not sure what the section aims to do. It could be important where a complainant feels unable to make a complaint. If it facilitates people making complaints who would not otherwise be able to do so, that is important. I am just not sure whether that is the purpose. Perhaps the Minister of State could explain it.