17 June 2016

The Centre has written to the Commonwealth Attorney-General to support the National Association of Community Legal Centres’ submission, which requests that the Commonwealth:

• reverse the $12.1 million funding cut to Community Legal Centres nationally in 2017-2018, the $11.6 million cut in 2018-2019 and the $11.13 million cut in 2019-2020 (amounting to a $34.83 million cut over the period 2017-18 to 2019-2020) under the National Partnership Agreement on Legal Assistance Services; and
• implement the Productivity Commission’s recommendation from its Access to Justice Arrangements Inquiry and provide an immediate injection of $120 million per year additional funding into the legal assistance sector, including at a minimum an additional $14.4 million per year to Community Legal Centres.

As always, the Centre noted that pro bono legal assistance can not be a substitute for government-funded legal assistance services.

The letter can be downloaded here.