Housing Legal Clinic

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (16:06): I move:

That this council—

1. Notes that the funding agreement for the Housing Legal Clinic ends on 30 June 2018; and

2. Calls on the South Australian government to commit to renewing funding for a further three years in order for the service to continue.

I rise to speak in support of the vital work that the Housing Legal Clinic does in South Australia and to strongly urge the South Australian government to maintain the funding for this service. The Housing Legal Clinic is managed by the Welfare Rights Centre and has a proud 11-year history of providing free legal advice to people who are facing homelessness, are at risk of homelessness or are low-income earners unable to afford legal assistance.

The Housing Legal Clinic works to coordinate lawyers from participating Adelaide law firms, providing pro bono legal advice to clients at various emergency relief locations. These include: the Hutt St Centre, the Magdalene Centre, Uniting Communities New ROADS, UnitingSA Port Adelaide, UnitingCare Wesley Bowden Inner Southern Homelessness, AnglicareSA Elizabeth and Service to Youth Council.

This service provides advice, referrals and minor representation to clients who would ordinarily not be able to access any legal assistance. Over 6,000 clients have used the Housing Legal Clinic over these 11 years, using approximately 8,000 hours of pro bono legal services. During those 11 years, the Housing Legal Clinic has helped clients access compensation, superannuation to assist them getting housed, challenged incorrect fines or charges and made referrals for numerous criminal matters, family law, immigration or civil claims.

Together with the Welfare Rights Centre, the Housing Legal Clinic provides an invaluable service, not just to its individual clients but to our entire state. Every day, the Housing Legal Clinic reduces the overall financial cost to our state for people entering into or unable to exit homelessness or being reliant on crisis services. It reduces the number of people entering into homelessness and ensures that people receive their appropriate social security payments. Since October 2017 alone, 136 people have been prevented from entering homelessness.

There is no doubt that the Housing Legal Clinic punches well above its weight, and it is vital that we continue its funding. Many of the clients whom the Housing Legal Clinic sees would have no other opportunity to seek legal advice if it were to close down. As they do not have the financial nor the social resources to access conventional legal services, the Law Council of Australia and the Law Society of South Australia have advocated for more access to legal services for such disadvantaged groups.

With legal aid funding in Australia at its lowest figures in years, we cannot afford to let yet another community legal service shut its doors. Yet, shut its doors it may well have to do as it awaits guidance on its future from a government that is, yes, new in its role, but certainly has not yet given an indication that the Housing Legal Clinic will continue.

The Housing Legal Clinic is currently funded from the Premier's discretionary funds and has received state government funding in the past. It is clearly doable. They do not ask for a lot of money and they are only asking for it to be able to keep their doors open so that many South Australians may have doors at their own homes to enter at the end of the day. Helping to keep these vulnerable members of our society in housing and supported by accessing the basic legal services that they would not be able to otherwise is vital.

It is very much the fence at the top of the cliff and if we do not address this issue now—and despite numerous approaches and a letter that has been sent to all members of parliament, I do believe, but I seek leave to table the letter from the Welfare Rights Centre of South Australia that has been sent to me. It is not dated but was received within this past week.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: I table that for the benefit of all members to inform them on this debate. This is not a great deal of money that we are talking about but it is an issue that will see many people without the support they need to stay in their housing. Without being able to stay in their housing, of course, we know that the flow-on effect to our state in terms of support services will be enormous. This service should never have been put in its current situation; they should have had funding guaranteed into the future well beyond the results either way of any state election. There is fault on both sides here—both the opposition and government—but it is the responsibility of all of us in this parliament to fix this.

I will be taking this motion to a vote on 20 June, the Wednesday of private members' business. I think it is that urgent that this parliament needs to pay attention to these sort of issues and that this government needs to step into the breach and ensure that the Housing Legal Clinic can continue beyond June this year. With that, I urge members of the Legislative Council to read the letter that I have tabled today in parliament, for the government to provide funding certainty to the Housing Legal Clinic, and I look forward to a beneficial debate on the next Wednesday of sitting.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. C.M. Scriven.