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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-07-03 Daily Xml
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LEGAL AID, HOMELESS PEOPLE

Ms PORTOLESI (Hartley) (14:34): My question is to the Minister for Housing. What services are being provided to people who are homeless to improve their access to legal representation?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Families and Communities, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management) (14:35): Since coming to office this state government has allocated over $23 million to initiatives designed to reduce homelessness. The projects that we have put in place demonstrate that homelessness is preventable and that housing is achievable with the right support. We have found that many of the issues faced by people who are homeless have particular legal concerns. Many homeless people have reached the point in their lives where they cannot or will not seek help to enforce their rights. However, with a little legal support they can develop a pathway out of homelessness.

It was because of this that I supported the establishment by the Welfare Rights Centre of the Housing Legal Clinic. This is a place where lawyers from private practice come and offer their services pro bono. The housing clinics provide work for the most vulnerable people in our community and, in the last financial year alone, they provided $770,000 worth of free financial and legal support. That is an extraordinary amount of volunteer effort. Last year an evaluation of the four city-based legal services was undertaken and I am pleased to say that the evaluation came back as a resounding success. Last week I had the pleasure of launching a new Housing Legal Clinic in Port Adelaide. That is the fifth clinic and the first one based in the suburbs. There is something incredibly powerful about people who are powerless having a lawyer speaking on their behalf. People who used to give them a very hard time suddenly sit up and take notice.

Ms Chapman: It doesn't get them a house, though.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: It gets them into housing. Often it is assisting them with evictions, which might be associated with debt matters. There might be just a few simple phone calls to reorganise someone's finances, yet having a lawyer on the line saying, 'I'm acting for this person,' is an entirely different matter. This pro bono work that is being done on behalf of the legal community demonstrates, I think, the legal community at its best and we support them in that. An expression of the success of the legal clinic was its recent win of the Give Well Good Giving charity award for the best community project in Australia. This award is a significant achievement for a program that has been operating for just two years. I pay tribute to all those lawyers who volunteer.

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