Page 981 - Week 03 - Thursday, 23 March 2017
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The second point I would then make is that I have done further digging on where the funding is at overall. I think this is hotly disputed. I have gone to the FactCheck on the ABC’s Q&A, which most people think is pretty handy. There was a significant debate about this after a discussion by the Q&A panel in November 2016 in which writer and actor Nakkiah Lui made the comment that there was a $35 million cut to front-line legal services. This became hotly disputed; so it became the subject of a fact check.
The FactCheck says she was asked:
Is it true the Coalition government cut $35 million to frontline legal services for victims of domestic violence?
It goes on in some detail. Members can read the whole thing, but I will try to give a fair account of it. It says:
It hasn’t been cut yet. But a $35 million cut in federal funding (spread over three years) is on the way. Under the National Partnership Agreement on Legal Assistance Services (the agreement under which Community Legal Centres are funded) the federal government plans to reduce future funding for Community Legal Centres over three years. Compared with 2016-17 levels of $42.2 million, Community Legal Centres funding will be reduced by:
• $12.1 million in 2017-2018
• $11.6 million in 2018-2019
• $11.2 million in 2019-2020.
That adds up to $34.9 million over three years. The cuts will be shared across more than 160 Community Legal Centres across Australia. So, compared to 2016-17 levels, Community Legal Centres are set to lose about $35 million in funding between 2017 and 2020.
So Nakkiah Lui’s statement is correct. But her quote doesn’t quite tell the whole story.
It then goes on—and this goes to Mr Hanson’s point—to say:
The federal government has announced other funding for Community Legal Centres and other services that support victims of family and domestic violence.
Under the same National Partnership Agreement on Legal Services that would result in the $35 million cut, the federal government promised a $12 million increase in funding for Legal Aid Commissions between 2015 and 2020.
It is a different bucket, but that is where it goes. Then it goes on to talk about some other areas, including the $100 million announcement of domestic violence response, in which $15 million was committed over three years to establish 12 new specialist domestic violence units within a number of legal assistance providers. And there is some more detail there. I could go on. There are several more pages of it. It finishes with the verdict:
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