Page 1955 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2011
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There is an extra $80,000 for Street Law to meet new staff demand. That is welcome. It has proved to be a very valuable service. The outreach model employed by Street Law has been very effective and it has met a clear demand. However, I am aware that the Attorney-General has some concerns about the way the money has been spent in the last few years and it is important to resolve those issues quickly so that we can continue the service with confidence because it clearly is delivering something that is really needed in our community.
I am extremely disappointed we have not been able to more comprehensively address the accommodation crisis facing the community legal centres. It has been documented that the CLCs are not able to accept pro bono legal assistance for those people falling between the cracks in our legal system, because of simple lack of space. That seems a real failure to harness the energy and the resources that are available to our community. We already know that for every dollar government spends on community legal centres $100 in costs is avoided down the line in the legal system. Imagine how much more that could be if we were able to take full advantage of the generosity of some legal practitioners in the community. The government in this budget has found $5.6 million for feasibility studies across all of the government but not a single dollar to be able to undertake some sort of feasibility study on how we might address the accommodation crisis facing the community legal centres.
There is $1.6 million to create a legal aid help desk and yet in the budget papers we see that three full-time equivalents will be lost from other parts of legal aid. I would be keen to understand exactly what that is about. But it does raise questions. What is the best way to spend dollars? Is it a legal aid help desk? Is it lawyers? Is it community legal centres? I also note that there is $3.6 million for new lawyers in the Government Solicitor’s Office to work on human rights, industrial relations and child protection issues but no new funding for the human rights commissioner. These are questions that warrant some further discussion.
I welcome the increased resources for security in the courts. I know this has been a source of concern for the legal profession. We have seen some distressing incidents and this will hopefully provide a better sense of security for those undertaking those tasks.
When it comes to emergency services, the injection into the Ambulance Service is welcome, with new ambulances and field staff. This is a good example of a sensible government approach to delivery of services. The Lennox review last year suggested additional communication centre staff and that was funded in last year’s budget. Lennox went on to say that once that was done we needed more field staff. It is good to see that that did not get dropped and the government has followed through on that in the budget this year.
I also welcome the $1 million for 32 new Fire Brigade recruits. Again it is interesting to read in the budget papers about the ageing of our fire service staff and it is good to see the government getting on the front foot there and starting to recruit now; also the commissioning of a feasibility study into the emergency services relocation. It is important to get that work underway.
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