Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The shadow Attorney-General recently targeted Bundaberg as needing a community legal service and criticised me as the local MP for not fighting hard enough for one in our region. I am happy to say that I have already got the ball rolling on this matter after it was raised with me by Tom Quinn. Tom, by the way, is someone I have spoken of in the parliament. In his late sixties he achieved a law degree by going to the University of New England. Having completed his law degree and his professional year in Brisbane, now well into his 70s he is undertaking pro bono legal work in Bundaberg. In the last two years he has done over 400 cases. Tom suggested to me some model similar to a family relationship centre and a legal centre, and I have been quite active in pursuing that. In fact, Bundaberg is listed for one of the new family relationship centres in 2008.

I challenge the shadow Attorney-General to support my efforts by calling on the Queensland government to increase its own funding of the other side of the program, the community legal service. The Commonwealth will provide $23.5 million this financial year for the Commonwealth Community Legal Services Program, the CCLSP, which will be used to fund 127 community legal centres across Australia. However—and this is worth noting for my opposition colleagues—the Queensland state Labor government is contributing only 32 per cent of the funding for community legal services, which makes the shadow Attorney-General’s claim that Labor is so keen on these things somewhat hollow. If the opposition is serious about getting these legal centres—including one in Bundaberg—it could start by pressuring its state Labor counterparts to increase the pool of funding available for Queensland centres.

There is growing demand for a community legal service in Bundaberg. It is the key centre for the Isis, Kolan, Perry and Burnett shires and has a catchment of about 80,000 people. Far from not being active in this matter, I have some very strong views on it and I have made those views known to a succession of attorneys-general. In comparison, our state Labor colleagues have done very little about Bundaberg. It will be interesting to see, with a state election on the horizon and a new candidate, whether they alter their position and locate a community legal service somewhere between Hervey Bay and Rockhampton. In the meantime, the Commonwealth will be providing a family relationship centre in 2008.

See this speech in context