The organisation sought a minimum of $125m in additional funds
Community Legal Centres Australia recently called for greater investment in legal services to stem the impact on over a hundred local legal services.
The organisation reached out to Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus KC and Expenditure Review Committee ministers in February to request an urgent infusion of at least $125m in national funding. The request was aimed at preventing the financial crisis plaguing 164 local legal services from dovetailing further.
Following the release of its 2024/25 Federal Budget Submission, Community Legal Centres Australia looked to arrange discussions with the Attorney-General, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher. A recently published analysis had shown that every year, community legal centres have been compelled to deny services to over 200,000 people across Australia due to resource constraints.
"Without action, we will keep seeing hundreds of thousands of people missing out on the help they need to prevent problems and get through crisis situations", said Gerard Brody, chairperson of Community Legal Centres Australia. “Without Australia's 164 community legal services, there would be more people in prisons, hospitals and sinking deeper into crisis. This means women and children stuck in dangerous situations, people losing their homes, households overwhelmed by debt and financial problems, families unable to resolve custody and conflict, asylum seekers facing exploitation, and people left in the dark about their legal rights”.
He added that the organisation was “asking the Federal Government to invest in a community where access to justice is based on legal need rather than your bank balance”.
