Community legal services will receive financial funding into the new financial year through the 2021-22 Budget, the ACT Government has announced. Those services include Canberra Community Law (CCL), Environmental Defenders Office, Women’s Legal Centre ACT, and Care Inc. Financial Counselling Service.
“Canberra’s community legal centres play an important role to ensure our most vulnerable communities have access to fair and just support,” said Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury. “Their outstanding dedication to turning people’s lives around when they need it most deserves our thanks and support.”
CCL apparently breathed a sigh of relief. “We welcome the ACT Government’s commitment to support Canberra Community Law’s work over the next 12 months,” said executive director/principal solicitor Genevieve Bolton.
Earlier this month, the community legal centre – Canberra’s only free specialist law service in public housing, Centrelink, and race and disability discrimination – sought $550,000 from the ACT Government to survive.
Without that support, Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee argued there was a risk CCL would need to cut staff and reduce its service capacity by 20%, leaving 170 vulnerable Canberrans without legal aid. Ms Lee had called on the Government to provide that certainty within a week; Mr Rattenbury was unable to do so in such a short time, but promised the August Budget would provide that funding certainty.
Mr Rattenbury said the ACT Government recognised the important services CCL provided for the community.
“This funding is critical to ensure that Canberrans in need have access to legal help,” Mr Rattenbury said. “Canberra Community Law has helped a lot of people in need throughout COVID-19 and seen a surge in demand which had been supported through Commonwealth Government funding.”
While glad of the funding, Ms Bolton said this was short-term funding in the face of the long-term challenges of COVID-19, a lack of affordable housing, and homelessness in the ACT.
“The demand for our services has skyrocketed as a direct result of the Covid pandemic, and the ending of JobKeeper, Covid payments, the moratorium on Centrelink debt collection, and the eviction moratorium.”
Client numbers have increased 10% and legal advice by 25%, while CCL has engaged two full-time lawyers, working pro bono, who struggle to keep up with demand.
“We urgently need long-term funding to meet the increased need in our community,” Ms Bolton said. “We look forward to ongoing dialogue with the Government around addressing this longer-term need.”
CCL called on the Commonwealth Government to help bridge this funding shortfall through the National Legal Assistant Partnership. This partnership has put aside $77.1 million over four years to resolve legal problems for people experiencing mental illness or domestic violence and for health justice partnerships. To date, Ms Bolton said, CCL had not received any funding from the recent Federal Budget.
Mr Rattenbury also believed the Commonwealth should support ACT community legal services.
“While that funding has ceased, COVID-19 remains, and we are still experiencing some of the persistent impacts of the pandemic in our community, particularly for vulnerable Canberrans.
“The funding announced by the ACT Government is just one step to ensure community legal services can remain accessible, resourced, and prevent people from falling through the gaps. To truly create more equitable outcomes across Canberra, we need the Commonwealth Government to join us and commit to funding our community legal sector,” he said.
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