The federal government says it's committed to funding front line legal aid services across the country amid calls from state and territory attorneys-general to reverse budget cuts in the area.
All seven attorneys-general have reportedly written to their federal counterpart, George Brandis, about the government's cuts to legal services.
Their letter is said to call on Senator Brandis to guarantee no further funding reductions would be made to Legal Aid Commission, Community Legal Centres, and the Aboriginal Legal Service.
Last year's budget reportedly cut $15 million from legal aid commissions and $6 million from community legal centres.
Speaking on Saturday, the Prime Minister's parliamentary secretary, Alan Tudge, said the government was committed to funding legal assistance services.
"We've got an absolute commitment to providing good funding for the front line legal aid services for vulnerable people," he told Sky News.
"We've committed 1.3 billion dollars over the next four years.
He said the government was reconfiguring how legal services organisations were funded.
"Instead of the commonwealth funding them directly we will fund them via the state governments," Mr Tudge said.
"We're in a process at the moment of working through that."
Labor MP for Kingsford Smith, Matt Thistlewaite, said the cuts would make the system more unfair.
"Labor will have a much fairer system," he told Sky News.
He said the cuts would be especially tough on Indigenous Australians who came before the courts.
"If an Aboriginal person comes before the legal system and they're not represented because there has been a cut to legal aid funding or the community legal aid service in their community, they're highly more likely to end up being incarcerated," Mr Thistlewaite added.
Federal Labor backed the state and territory attorneys-general in their push to wind back the funding cuts.
Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus labelled it extraordinary that the group of seven had united to oppose the slashed funding.
"The Abbott government's cuts to the legal assistance sector are already being felt by the most vulnerable Australians," Mr Dreyfus said in a statement.
He pointed to the impact of the cuts on families experiencing domestic violence and on Indigenous Australians.
He called on the Abbott government to "provide funding allocations to the states and territories by the end of the month".
"Any further delay will increase uncertainty to a sector already struggling because of Liberal cuts," Mr Dreyfus added.
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