As prime minister Malcolm Turnbull announces money for mobile blackspots in Corangamite, he is neglecting existing blackspots in free legal help and making them worse with more than $34 million in cuts left in place in the Federal Budget amid a broader Federal funding shortfall of $100m over four years.

‘The cuts mean that coverage of legal help for serious legal problems including family violence will grow worse – particularly in rural areas and even in major regional centres like Geelong,’ said Katie Fraser, acting executive officer of the Federation of Community Legal Centres, today. Continue reading →

Today’s Federal Government announcement of $30 million over three years for family violence legal assistance will fail to reverse cuts to community legal centres and is manifestly inadequate to meet the needs of women seeking protection from family violence, according to the Federation of Community Legal Centres, the Victorian peak body representing more than a quarter of Australia’s 200 community legal centres. Continue reading →

Tonight’s Federal Budget has seen no new investment in community legal centres, leaving in place a national 30 per cent cut set to commence in July 2017. In failing on free legal help for people who can’t afford a lawyer or get legal aid, the Federal Government has ignored a central recommendation of the Productivity Commission for an urgent annual boost to national funding for combined free legal assistance services of $200 million a year. Continue reading →