Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to indicate Labor's support for the Judiciary Amendment Bill 2015. This is a bill which implements a change to the management of the Australian Government Solicitor, the AGS. This change in management was announced in MYEFO late last year, when the government indicated its intention to consolidate the Australian Government Solicitor into the Attorney-General's Department. The AGS presently operates independently as a government owned business, as it has since 1999. However, it is not unprecedented for the AGS to operate from within the Attorney-General's Department. For most of its history, the AGS and its predecessor, the Crown Solicitor's Office, was housed within the Public Service.

The government has indicated that this is only a machinery change, and Labor accepts it on this basis. This bill does not in any functional sense alter the work of the AGS. The AGS will continue to operate as a distinct entity within the department. It will continue to work under its own name and brand. It will still play the same role in the Commonwealth legal services market that it plays today. In that sense, this bill stands in stark contrast to the recommendation by the National Commission of Audit ahead of the government's 2014 budget.

We do not hear much about the Commission of Audit from those opposite these days. The government would rather we all forget about it. It tells you something when even Tony Abbott's Liberal government is embarrassed by just how extreme the commission's report was. But it is worth returning to that report for a moment just to contrast what this bill will do against what had been proposed earlier.

In May last year, the commission recommended that the AGS be abolished. It argued that the Office of General Counsel, a section of the AGS dealing with particularly sensitive matters of government, should be consolidated into the department, and that the rest of the firm should be sold off into the private sector. That recommendation was deeply foolish. It was a lazy, ideological gesture. The commission paid no regard to the realities and the practicalities of the market for Commonwealth legal services. It ignored the important, distinct role of the AGS in meeting the legal needs of the Commonwealth government. This bill does not implement that recommendation in any sense. As I said, it is a minor machinery change, and Labor is willing to support it on that basis. As was foreshadowed in MYEFO, the bill's explanatory memorandum states that the changes will be cost neutral. The government has indicated that once this bill is in effect, it will review the operation of the broader Commonwealth legal services landscape. We welcome this. But we want to make it clear that we believe strongly in the continuing role of the AGS in that landscape. We hope that the coming review repudiates the glib approach taken by the Commission of Audit and, instead, continues the serious work undertaken by the last Labor government.

In government, Labor was deeply serious about reforming Commonwealth legal services. We wanted to make sure not only that the Commonwealth got the best legal services possible, but also that those services were provided in a cost-effective way. Expert legal advice is critical to the smooth function of government, but we should always ensure that we are getting value for money. In 2009, the then Labor Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, commissioned a comprehensive report into Commonwealth legal services by the respected experts in government and law, Tony Blunn AO and Sibylle Krieger. Mr Blunn and Ms Krieger were tasked with examining how the Commonwealth could achieve further efficiencies and maximise value for taxpayers' money. This was in the procurement of legal services. In 2010 we followed that up by commissioning expert economic advice on the Commonwealth legal services market from Nicholas Gruen of Lateral Economics.

In response to this considered, thorough work, the Labor government introduced important reforms to the way the Commonwealth procures legal services. Most notably, we replaced the old panels system with the legal services multi-use list. This change cut down on duplication and inefficiencies for both government clients and the providers competing for their work. We also took a number of steps to build knowledge and expertise among all categories of lawyers servicing the government, whether at the AGS, in-house, in government departments, or working in private firms bidding for government work. This is the sort of thoughtful, productive work that Commonwealth governments of both political persuasions should undertake. I hope that the government continues in this vein. We are certainly very glad to see the government abandon the foolhardy ideas entertained by its Commission of Audit last year and instead move forward with the minor machinery changes made by this bill.

Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I take the opportunity to sum up on the Judiciary Amendment Bill 2015. I thank all honourable senators who have contributed to this debate. This amendment bill supports the consolidation of the AGS into the Attorney-General's Department and will create a more unified and effective department that will become a comprehensive source of authoritative advice on key Commonwealth legal and legal policy issues. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.