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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-11-16 Daily Xml
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Legal Assistance Sector

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:42): I rise to express my disappointment about the impending federal funding cuts to the legal assistance sector. This significantly impacts organisations that provide free legal help in South Australia, such as the Southern Community Justice Centre, which primarily services people in the state's southern regions.

There is a great deal at stake for the entire community. Community legal centres, known as CLCs, are not-for-profit organisations that play a distinct role in assisting those who cannot afford a private lawyer but who are unable to obtain legal aid. As community-based organisations, they strive to embed their services within the community, drawing on the generosity of volunteers and pro bono services.

CLCs primarily focus on civil and family law matters and fill the justice gap by assisting people who would not otherwise have access to much-needed legal advice or representation. Indeed, there is a substantial unmet need for legal assistance in Australia. The Productivity Commission's report, 'Access to justice arrangements', recommended an immediate injection of $120 million into the sector by the federal government. Sadly, these needs will continue to go unmet because the federal government wilfully disregarded this key recommendation.

My understanding is that commonwealth funding for SA community legal centres was cut by 24 per cent in July 2015. Furthermore, with the latest five-year National Partnership Agreement on Legal Assistance Services, they face a steeper cut in commonwealth funding as of July 2017. That is a 44 per cent cut in just over two years, or an equivalent loss of $2.18 million. CLCs are expected to receive a paltry sum of $2.78 million from the commonwealth.

The unfortunate reality is that significant disparities exist between individuals and their access to justice. Perhaps a narrow perception is that this only affects low income earners. However, people across a range of ages, socioeconomic status and cultural backgrounds lack access to justice. Over the years, I have been disheartened to hear many people's stories about their difficult and frustrating experiences as unrepresented litigants in the legal system. I noticed that a common thread through the stories was their fundamental struggle to understand the process and to be active participants.

Community centres, such as Southern Community Justice Centre, bridge this gap by not only providing legal advice but also community education and a range of services, including child support and mediation. Access to and participation in the justice system is a social issue that is very much in the public interest. Vulnerable members of our community face greater challenges due to these cuts. What the federal government fails to realise is that access to justice should be a right, not a service.

I am told that, between 2014 and 2015, the federal government spent $728.15 million on its own legal services, an increase of nearly $40 million in expenditure from the previous year. This is a disgraceful show of hypocrisy. If only a tiny part of this money could go to CLCs. Meanwhile, 160,000 people are being turned away by CLCs nationally each year due to the shortage in commonwealth funding. Cutting commonwealth funding from community legal services will not do any good in our democratic society where every individual deserves justice.

The federal government has clearly passed the buck in terms of funding. The real test of leadership comes when governments are asked to protect the rights of the vulnerable, and the Turnbull government needs to rise to this challenge. I join with legal bodies and community groups nationwide in calling on the federal government to restore its share of legal assistance funding and give meaning to the principle of equality before the law for all Australians.

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