A leading Northern Territory legal service’s plan to dramatically cut back critical services from next year has raised concerns vulnerable adult will have no choice but to represent themselves in court.
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00:00Operating under increasing strain, on a shoestring budget, the NT's Legal Aid Commission has
00:08reached breaking point.
00:10A letter from Legal Aid's former acting director, addressed to key stakeholders last week, says
00:16a lack of funding from the NT government means it will have to cut critical services from
00:21January 1st.
00:23It means all new applications for aid for adult criminal law matters will be refused.
00:29Legal aid for all adult matters listed for trial or hearing after January 1st will be
00:34terminated and all remote court services will cease completely.
00:39With no word from the NT government about the bombshell news, the opposition stepped
00:44up to demand answers.
00:46We do not want to see Territorians unrepresented when they are in touch with the justice system.
00:53What we will see is potentially innocent people being locked up.
00:57So we're here today to call on the country Liberal government to provide that funding.
01:02For years Legal Aid NT has been lobbying governments for more financial help, with the previous
01:08government not making any promises.
01:11There were no funding top-ups after the election, but in the last budget we did put $9m aside.
01:17In a jurisdiction with Australia's highest incarceration rates, the threat of reduced
01:22legal services for vulnerable people has advocates sounding the alarm.
01:27People will end up representing themselves and the challenge of that is that we have
01:31more and more people being added to an overcrowded prison population that we know isn't working.
01:37The Territories Legal Aid Commission is funded by both the NT government and a national funding
01:42package.
01:43But a spokesperson for the Federal Attorney General says there have been no Commonwealth
01:48funding cuts to the service and that the issue lies squarely with the NT government.
01:53Legal Aid NT has been contacted for comment.
01:57For more information visit www.legalaidnt.co.uk