LEGAL AID

That this House supports an effective legal aid system, meeting the needs of the most vulnerable in society; recognises the need for provision of services by a wide range of legal providers across the entire country, rural and urban; considers that the tendering process to deliver social welfare and family services undertaken by the Legal Services Commission this year does not meet that objective as it reduces choice in a particularly challenging area in providing access to justice; and calls on the Government to reconsider this tendering process before it damages the family service legal provision irrevocably.