Canberra’s community legal services have faced a difficult couple of years – demand for free legal aid has skyrocketed during the pandemic, and organisations have feared they may have to cut staff and reduce service capacity. But an extra eight million from the Commonwealth will give them the funding certainty they seek.
Commonwealth Attorney-General Michaelia Cash announced $8.4 million for the ACT under the National Legal Assistance Partnership 2020-2025 (NLAP) – part of more than $2.3 billion across Australia for legal assistance services over the next five years.
“This is a valuable additional provision of legal services; there is a lot of demand out there,” said ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury.
“This money will mean that more clients will get through our door. Our community legal centres and LegalAid will be able to service more people, help more people with the legal problems they have, and ensure better access to justice.”
“It’s incredibly important to have this funding certainty,” said Farzana Choudhury, senior solicitor at Canberra Community Law, one of the organisations receiving funding. “We’re a very busy community legal centre, and there’s so much that we can do, but without the resources to do it, the assistance we provide will always be limited.”
Earlier this year, Canberra Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee called for the ACT Government to provide Canberra Community Law with $550,000 once short-term funding from the Commonwealth ended.
Mr Rattenbury said at the time that the 2021–22 Budget would provide the funding certainty Ms Lee requested, but the Budget cabinet could not provide an answer within the week. The community sector breathed a sigh of relief they would receive funding. (Ms Lee protested: “Community law providers were given no funding certainty from this ACT Labor-Greens Government at a time when vulnerable Canberrans desperately needed legal services.”)
In October’s budget, the ACT Government provided $2 million for Canberra Community Law and other community legal services, and $2.5 million for Legal Aid.
Ms Lee welcomed today’s announcement.
“Funding from the Morrison Government has secured a future for community legal services and makes sure that all Canberrans regardless of background are able to access quality legal services,” she said.
Mr Rattenbury said the $8 million funding would help vulnerable and low-income women – including victim-survivors of violence – and people needing mental health support.
During the pandemic, the number of people with mental health issues has increased; in the last financial year, a third of her clients reported mental ill health, Ms Choudhury said.
“This whole year has been incredibly stressful, particularly for people with lived experience of mental ill health,” she said. “There are some real challenges in terms of accessing services, employment, accessing Centrelink payments such as the Disability Support Pension and housing are things we come across in our day-to-day practice. Having some funding to help us meet that need is very welcomed.”
Canberra Community Law will expand its Parachute Program (a specialist legal service that helps women suffering family violence with Centrelink and housing), and set up a Mental Health Justice Clinic (targeted legal assistance and community education to help people with mental illnesses resolve legal issues early on before they escalate).
Similarly, Legal Aid ACT will engage a duty lawyer for their Family Violence Unit and a dedicated mental health support worker for their Family Advocacy Support Services.
The Women’s Legal Centre will provide dedicated mental health support to clients accessing its Domestic Violence Unit, and employ a lawyer to help women facing sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace.
CARE Inc. will expand its legal services to help clients with mental health problems deal with financial matters.
Although the lockdown has ended, community legal centres have told the ACT Government that vulnerable Canberrans still feel the consequences, and some of these complex legal matters have ‘a long tail’, Mr Rattenbury acknowledged.
The four-year funding would give community legal organisations confidence to invest both in their programs and in their staff, he said. Longer-term funding agreements would allow them to better support their clients, and invest in staff and training, rather than spending their time applying for grants.
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