March 1, 2017
The State Government, Community Legal Centres Queensland and the Queensland Law Society have called on the Federal Government to reverse its decision to cut $2 million from the State’s community legal services funding.
Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the Federal Government’s cuts to Community Legal Centres would stop some Queenslanders being able to access free legal help.
“These funding cuts could force Community Legal Centres to reduce services, close branch offices and telephone advice lines, and sack staff,” Mrs D’Ath said.
Mrs D’Ath said community legal services helped vulnerable people who could not afford a lawyer and were not eligible for government legal aid.
The services help people with a wide range of legal problems, including family violence, relationship breakdowns and family law, debt, consumer problems, tenancy disputes, and employment issues.
Under the National Partnership Agreement on Legal Assistance, national funding for Community Legal Centres will be slashed from $42.2 million in 2016-17 to $30.1 million in 2017-18.
Queensland’s share will be cut by $2 million – from $8.9 million in 2015-16 to $6.9 million in 2017-18.
Community Legal Centres Queensland Director, James Farrell, said $2 million was a relatively small amount in the context of the Federal Budget, but that this funding cut would mean thousands of people would miss out on legal help.
“Last year Queensland Community Legal Centres provided help to almost 60,000 people, but tens of thousands more were locked out because of chronic under funding,” Mr Farrell said.
The Queensland Law Society (QLS) has also backed the State Government’s call to reverse the funding cut decision.
QLS President Christine Smyth said the group had waged a long and hard campaign against the cuts.
“Queensland’s CLCs are in a state of crisis and headed toward a funding cliff due to a lack of federal funding, meaning justice is being denied to tens of thousands of people each year,” Ms Smyth said.
“Successive federal governments have ripped millions of dollars from CLCs, crippling a vital justice safety net.”
In November, QLS joined more than 60,000 solicitors across Australia to pen an open letter published in The Australian newspaper imploring the federal government to supply sufficient funds to guarantee access to justice for the nation’s most impoverished and vulnerable citizens.
“It is a fundamental component of the rule of law that access to justice be available to all,” Ms Smythe said.
Footnote: In July last year the South Burnett gained a community legal service for the first time when the Advocacy and Support Centre, based in Toowoomba, began offering a fortnightly legal outreach at the Kingaroy Courthouse. southburnett.com.au has attempted to contact the the Centre to see if Budget cuts will threaten this service, but have so far been unable to obtain a comment.
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