Attorney-General Launches Royal Commission Legal Advisory Service

By Samantha Donovan
ABC News
July 16, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-16/attorney-general-launches-royal-commission-legal/4823398?section=vic

[with audio]

The Federal Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, has launched a free national legal advisory service for people wanting to give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The service will be run by the National Association of Community Legal Centres and will be independent of the Royal Commission and Government.

ELEANOR HALL: The Federal Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus QC, has launched a free legal service for people wanting to give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Mr Dreyfus told Samantha Donovan that the service will be independent of the commission and will be run by the National Association of Community Legal Centres.

MARK DREYFUS: This is a service which is going to provide advice to anyone attending the Royal Commission, including the people that are attending the private sessions of the Royal Commission.

It won't be providing legal representation as such, but it'll assist people in providing legal representation if that's required.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: What sort of issues do you think people will primarily be seeking advice on?

MARK DREYFUS: I think that people will be seeking advice on how the Commission is going to operate, what sort of things they will be called on to do, and quite possibly people will ask for assistance in getting a lawyer.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Many people who have suffered abuse are wrestling with the decision about whether to give evidence, and are concerned about any possible ramifications. What sort of advice would they be getting on protections, for example, that may be offered to them?

MARK DREYFUS: Well I think one of the key things that this legal advisory service is going to do is to talk to people about the difference between giving evidence in the formal open hearing of the Royal Commission and attending the private sessions of the Royal Commission.

There's a clear choice that people are going to be able to make. The reason why we passed legislation to enable the Royal Commission to conduct these private sessions is because we were very conscious that, for many people who want to be a witness, who want to speak about what happened to them, they may not wish to do so in public. They may wish to do so in private session.

So I think there's an important decision to be made there, and that's something that this legal advisory service is going to assist people in making that decision.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: How many people are you estimating may need to use the service?

MARK DREYFUS: Well several thousand people have already contacted the Royal Commission to indicate their interest in assisting the Commission with its inquiry. That's why we've set this legal advisory service up on some scale - we've given $18 million for it.

It took some time to get it up and running because it's an entirely new service, and there's been a significant workload associated with its establishment. It could be many hundreds or even thousands of people who are contacting this legal advisory service and using its assistance.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: It's going to be run by community legal centres. Is $18 million going to be enough to roll this service out and are there going to be enough lawyers around to help?

MARK DREYFUS: The reason we asked the National Association of Community Legal Centres to run this service is because that association, as you'd expect, has very significant community experience. We thought that they had the right expertise to set up this service, but this is new funding, dedicated funding specifically for this service, and in no sense will it affect the funding of or add pressures to the work of community legal centres. They do fantastic work right across Australia, but I want to stress this is a new service with a new allocation of funding.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Many victims of abuse are often concerned about the independence of the legal advice they receive. Are you giving assurances that this advice will be independent?

MARK DREYFUS: This is completely independent advice. One of the reasons why we set up this stand alone legal advisory service is because it gives them assurance of independence.

It's completely separate from the Royal Commission, completely separate for that matter from government, and completely separate from the Community Legal Service.

It's got a single purpose which is to give advice and assistance to people who are participating in the Royal Commission.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Concerns have been raised recently about indigenous Australians even being aware of the Royal Commission, let alone getting help to give evidence. Is this advisory service going to pay particular attention to indigenous Australians?

MARK DREYFUS: It is. The legal advisory service is entering into arrangements with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services, and we've provided additional funding to those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services separate and on top of the $18 million that's going to this legal advisory service that's going to do things like outreach services in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and make sure that people across Australia in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities know about the Royal Commission, know what the possibilities are, know how they can participate.

ELEANOR HALL: That's the Federal Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, speaking to Samantha Donovan.