A scheduled meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), which was expected to include the signing off of the legal profession reforms, was cancelled last week with no details for another date announced.

A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Department said the reforms and an implementation timetable will shortly be considered by COAG either in or out of session, but no further details on the timetable of implementation are yet decided. “COAG will determine the timing of when the final reforms and timetable will be made public,” the spokesperson said. However, the reforms could be passed without a COAG meeting, bringing some hope to the profession which is eagerly awaiting the final shape of the regulation.

The Law Council of Australia has expressed its disappointment at the cancellation of this week’s scheduled meeting of COAG. Council president, Alexander Ward said an extensive amount of consultation and effort has gone into the reform process over a long period of time and the profession would like to see the new regulatory framework introduced as soon as practicable.

“The Australian legal profession is looking forward to progressing the establishment of the new national regulatory framework and is hopeful COAG will progress this matter out of session,” Ward said.
Once the COAG package is settled, legal practitioners in all states and territories within Australia (with the exception, at the present time, of Western Australia and South Australia) will be subject to uniform national rules.

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