The initiatives are outlined in Wellbeing Budget 2022: A Secure Future (19 May 2022) <budget.govt.nz> at 129:

"Legal Aid – Maintaining Funding for Legal Representation for People who Cannot Afford Legal Services

This initiative provides funding to cover the costs of increased demand for legal aid services, projected to 2024/25. These services provide legal help and assistance to people who need it but otherwise cannot afford it. This ensures that people are not denied access to justice due to their financial means.

This initiative is part of the multi-year Justice cluster process.

Vote	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24	2024/25	2025/26	Operating Total	Capital Total
Justice	(12.000)	8.923	17.863	26.325	0.361	41.472	-

Legal Aid – Strengthening the System to Improve Access to Justice and Reduce Debt for Low-Income New Zealanders

This initiative provides funding to update the legal aid policy settings relating to eligibility, repayment, and legal aid lawyers’ remuneration to improve access to justice for low-income New Zealanders and ensure the scheme is resilient and sustainable. It will enable more people to access the scheme and receive legal advice to resolve their legal problems, while encouraging lawyers to continue providing the service. It will also make repayments more equitable, by reducing requirements for low-income and vulnerable New Zealanders.

This initiative is part of the multi-year Justice cluster process.

Vote	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24	2024/25	2025/26	Operating Total	Capital Total
Justice	-	27.986	39.833	40.248	40.674	148.741	-"

(The amounts stated represent $m. Regarding the “Justice cluster”, see Wellbeing Budget 2022 at 25–26.)

Additional information is provided in the Government press release “Budget 2022 bolsters legal aid, ensures continued access to justice” (26 May 2022) <www.beehive.govt.nz>, which says that “Budget 2022 will help around 93,000 more people be eligible for legal aid from January 2023”. Regarding the first initiative:

"As the number and cost of legal aid cases are projected to grow the Ministry must be able to fund them, Budget 2022 will provide $41.5 million over four years to cover the costs of existing demand for legal aid services, based on projections through until 2024/25."

Regarding the second initiative:

"Legal aid is central to ensuring equity in New Zealand's justice system and by further investing over $148 million across four years, we are making sure people are not denied access to justice based on their financial means.

…

Budget 2022 will update legal aid policy settings around eligibility, repayment, and legal aid lawyers’ remuneration to improve access to justice, ensuring that the legal aid scheme is resilient into the future."

More specifically:

• "Hourly rates for over 2,400 legal aid lawyers to be raised by 12 per cent beginning 1 July 2022
• Increasing debt repayment thresholds by 16.5 per cent from 1 January 2023, relieving financial pressures for around 16,000 low-income and vulnerable New Zealanders per year
• Yearly 1.9 per cent increases to both the eligibility and repayment thresholds for the next three years, so that these settings keep pace with wage inflation"

A further source of information is The Estimates of Appropriations for the Government of New Zealand for the Year Ending 30 June 2023: Justice Sector (19 May 2022) <www.parliament.nz>, which covers not only the “Legal Aid” appropriation (at 104–106) but also the “Administration of Legal Services” appropriation (at 90–91) and the “Public Defence Service” appropriation (at 97–98). In summary:

The legal aid funding increase in Budget 2022 is noted in Legal Services at [LA3.02(3)] on Westlaw New Zealand.