In the lead up to next month's ACT election, the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) has launched its 'Call-to-Parties' urging politicians to improve access to justice for all Territorians.
"Elected representatives in our state must be committed to ensuring that all ACT residents can access justice when they need it," said Mr Hassan Ehsan, ACT President, Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA). "When people have been negligently injured on our roads, abused while in institutional care, mistreated or injured in any way, we need to be confident that we have laws and court processes in place to ensure appropriate support and compensation are readily available to help individuals get their lives back on track."
The ALA's ACT Branch has outlined the following five priority areas of policy and law reform for consideration by candidates vying for election or re-election: the ACTs Motor Accident Injuries Scheme, ACT Courts, rights for victim survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, voluntary assisted dying and limitations law reform.
"This election is a valuable opportunity for all parties and candidates to ensure we get the balance right in regard to justice in the ACT and to consider some important law reforms. We have written to the three major parties highlighting our key priorities and asking for them to share their views on these issues," said Mr Ehsan.
"A key priority for us is reform of the ACT's Motor Accident Injuries Scheme to ensure the most fair and just outcomes for injured motorists and their support networks in the ACT. Currently we are seeing people injured on the ACT's roads who are facing serious barriers to accessing the current scheme.
"We are concerned that the recent three-year review had a very low rate of participation and did not adequately address negative experiences with the scheme.
"We also believe reform on limitation laws in the ACT is needed."
The ACT's limitation laws only allow an extension of time for work injury claims. This means that some injured people may not be able to claim damages as the timeframe for making a claim passes, even in circumstances where the injured person did not know of their rights until a significant time after they were injured.
"The ACT's law is inconsistent with the laws in other jurisdictions and should be modified to allow the court to grant an extension of time where it is fair and reasonable to do so," said Mr Ehsan. "This is important to ensure fair compensation and support for people who have been injured due to someone else's negligence.
"Likewise, we are calling for law reform in the ACT to ensure that victim survivors of institutional child sex abuse are not prevented from receiving justice by the excessive use of permanent stays."
Finally, the ALA welcomes the ACT Legislative Assembly passing the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2023 (ACT), providing for access to Voluntary Assisted Dying from 3 November 2025.
"However, based on experiences in other jurisdictions we call on candidates to commit to providing sufficient resources to ensure that enough health practitioners are able to undertake the required training by the time the ACT's Voluntary Assisted Dying scheme commences in November 2025."
