Federal Budget

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (14:42): My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney-General inform the house about the impact of the federal budget on legal aid funding and the operation of community legal centres in South Australia?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform) (14:42): I thank the honourable member for her question. I have to say that I have been increasingly concerned over recent times about the indications that the federal government was, in effect, going to be abandoning some of its support for the most vulnerable people in our community through, particularly, their subsidisation of community legal centres here in South Australia.

As members would know, community legal centres provide a very important service to people who would otherwise not have access to legal services, and often prevent those people, by reason of having timely advice, from getting into difficulties that might otherwise have caused them and others a considerable amount of trouble. I know that a number of members in this place would be aware that there are community legal centres operating in their electorates, or at least providing services to people who are constituents in their electorates.

As I understand it, the commonwealth budget resulted in a 20 per cent cut—and this is in the context of the community legal centre sector being a federally funded sector, full stop—in funding for community legal centres in South Australia. That represents a total of $870,000 when compared with the funding provided in 2014-15. I make the point that the penny pinching involved in attacking a basic service like this, provided by the commonwealth, in the context of the scale of their budget, is breathtaking.

The cuts are even greater when compared to what was previously budgeted for 2014-15. The reduction to community legal centres funding is closer to $1 million in 2015-16 compared to the previous amount expected from the commonwealth during that 2015-16 period. However, the commonwealth has pinned the bulk of the cuts upon two—just two—of the community legal centres in South Australia because, for reasons that are a little obscure but are possibly to do with an error made by the federal Attorney-General, there was a guarantee of continued funding at existing rates to six of the eight community legal centres here in South Australia.

What they decided to do was go ahead and make their cuts anyway, but of course those cuts mean that, of the six that have their funding guaranteed, they do not get to share in any of the cuts at all. These two organisations are the Central Community Legal Service and WestSide Community Lawyers, and I am sure a number of members here are aware of the great work that they have been doing—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: A lot of volunteer work, indeed. These two organisations are to receive a total of $350,000 in 2015-16 compared to the $1.2 million they were supposed to receive—a reduction of $860,000 in funding. The commonwealth will not guarantee the funding to the other six community centres for any more than two years, and some of these centres, I emphasise for those members opposite, are based in regional South Australia.

Can I implore all members, but particularly those opposite—and those opposite who have the privilege of representing regional communities, I am sure all of you know the importance of these community legal centres to your communities and how much assistance they provide—if there is anything that you can do to assist by way of communication to your colleagues in Canberra about how miserable, mean and obtuse this move is, it would be greatly appreciated because this is a wholly commonwealth funded program, and it is something that I hope all members would share serious concerns about.