Chapter 1 - Introduction
Background
1.1
On 17 June
2003, the Senate referred the matters set out in the terms of
reference to the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee for
inquiry and report by 3 March 2004.
On 2 March 2004, the Senate
agreed to extend the reporting date to 31
March 2004. Because of the pressure of other Committee inquiries,
the reporting date was extended to 26
May 2004.
1.2
The Committee presented an interim report on 25 May 2004, noting that it would
present its final report on or before 8
June 2004.
Previous reports
1.3
The Committee has previously conducted an inquiry into
the legal aid system in Australia,
presenting reports in March 1997, June 1997 (the Second Report referred to elsewhere in this report) and June 1998 (the Third Report).
Conduct of the inquiry
1.4
The Committee
advertised the inquiry in The Australian
on 2 July 2003, 16 July 2003 and 13 August 2003, and invited submissions by 21 August 2003. Details of the
inquiry and associated documents were placed on the Committees
website. The Committee also wrote to almost
300 organisations and individuals inviting their submissions, and later in its
inquiry contacted a range of Indigenous remote communities seeking their
response on access to justice issues in their communities.
1.5
The Committee received 115 submissions from various
individuals and organisations and these are listed at Appendix 1. Submissions
were placed on the Committees website for ease of access by the public.
1.6
Public hearings were held in Port Augusta on 11 November 2003, Melbourne
on 12 November 2003, Sydney
on 13 November 2003 and Canberra
on 9 February 2004 and 10 March 2004. A list of witnesses
who appeared at the hearings is at Appendix 2. Copies of the Hansard transcripts
are available at http://aph.gov.au/hansard.
Acknowledgement
1.7
The Committee thanks those organisations and
individuals who made submissions and gave evidence at the public hearings.
Note on references
1.8
References in this report are to individual submissions
as received by the Committee, not to a bound
volume. References to the Committee Hansard
are to the proof Hansard: page numbers may vary between the proof and the
official Hansard transcript.