CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Mr GEE (Calare) (10:25): I rise today to speak about a crisis that is unfolding in our family court system: the dangerous defunding and underresourcing of independent children's lawyers, or ICLs. In difficult, often intense, family law disputes, particularly those involving domestic violence, abuse and complex trauma, ICLs perform an indispensable role. They represent the child.
They give a dedicated, independent expert voice to the most vulnerable citizens in our nation. They make sure that, when life-altering parenting orders and safety protections are made, the child's safety and best interests remain front and centre. Yet right now, as a direct result of federal funding shortfalls under the National Access to Justice Partnership, our legal aid system is reaching breaking point.
A lack of funding has meant that Legal Aid NSW has been forced to place restrictions on ICL appointments. By the end of this year, ICLs will only be funded for final hearings unless at least one parent is self-represented—if parents are represented, no ICLs—and no ICLs will appear on appeals. Think about that in practice—what it means.
When judges and courts are weighing evidence and making orders crucial to the welfare of vulnerable children, those kids will be left without an independent voice and left without an advocate in the courtroom. This is hitting hard in regional New South Wales and right across the Central West. In country areas, domestic violence and family violence rates remain unacceptably high, and the need for an independent advocate for regional kids is acute.
Over 70 per cent of legal aid funded work across this state is carried out by private legal practitioners. Out in the regions, local firms, like Cheney Suthers in Orange, have experienced family lawyers stepping up onto the ICL panel—accredited specialists, like Alice Byrnes—but they are being pushed to the brink. They are already practically working pro bono, or for free.
Is it now the federal government's expectation that country lawyers should subsidise the Commonwealth and work for free? Is that what we are asking our lawyers to do to support these vulnerable children? The independent Mundy review warned of this crisis in 2024 and made it crystal clear: ICLs require their own dedicated funding, requiring $88 million to keep this vital system and service functioning.
The Commonwealth can't treat the safety of vulnerable children as a budget line item to be compromised on. I call on the Attorney-General and the Commonwealth government to urgently step up, meet the funding recommendations of the Mundy review and restore this dedicated funding for independent children's lawyers. The health and wellbeing of vulnerable children is at stake, and we can't let them slip through the cracks of an underfunded legal system.