Page 974 - Week 03 - Thursday, 23 March 2017
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continue to increase under the national partnership agreement. Funding Legal Aid commissions will increase by $11.99 million.
I will now turn to the ACT. I hope Mr Ramsay and Mr Rattenbury, are listening, although they seem not to be. Mr Rattenbury will later no doubt say he has not got all the facts so he cannot support my amendment, but he is not even listening. He is not even listening to the facts. So his excuse, it would appear, for not supporting the amendment to be tabled will be, “I don’t have the detail,” but he is choosing not to listen to the detail. That goes to the way that business is sometimes conducted by the Greens in this place. The earnest, evidence-based truth-tellers of the Greens, it turns out, are not even listening to the details. So let me go into further detail now that Mr Rattenbury is listening, and this is specifically to do with the ACT.
The total commonwealth funding to community legal centres in the Australian Capital Territory has increased by 101 per cent under the current coalition government. I will say that again: it has increased by 101 per cent under the coalition government. In 2011-12, in the death throes of the previous Gillard-Rudd government, funding was $768,000. In the coming budget, it is expected to be $1.4 million—a 101 per cent increase not acknowledged by Mr Rattenbury in his speech. I accept that that amount is now going to be reduced, but I think we need to acknowledge the massive injection of funds not only in the ACT but across Australia that this federal government has put in. It is important that we get the facts on the table.
With the savings that are then made, which we do not support—let me be clear, I want to keep every cent coming into these services that we can—it is important to understand what they are. About half those savings was one-off funding that was never expected to be replaced. There are two elements to what is being reduced across the nation: ongoing funding that is being reduced by about $6 million across the nation—bear in mind, I just outlined the increases—and a one-off four-year transfer made of $6.8 million by the former Labor government that was never expected to continue. That is an important point to make to get the facts on the matter. To say this is a cliff and will be the end of the legal centres and so on and to catastrophise this is not accurate. Half of this funding was always expected to end, and that was the decision of the former federal Labor government.
I note that the federal government has asked legal centre service providers to privatise front-line activity, not managerial or administrative or campaign material. That has been acknowledged. I will quote Genevieve Bolton, Executive Director/Principal Solicitor of Canberra Community Law:
We are also well aware, in our sector, of the need to tighten budgets; and excel at performing or duties diligently, with compassion, in a resource-strapped environment.
As I have said, in acknowledging these facts, I support Mr Rattenbury’s ultimate intent, which is to make sure that we get every cent we can into these important organisations. I will just read from a press release from the sector:
In Canberra, the Women’s Legal Centre, the Care Consumer Law Centre, Canberra Community Law and the Tenants’ Union provide crucial support to
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