Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Thursday I was pleased to host an antidiscrimination forum in my electorate of Lalor. I did so in partnership with Denis Nelthorpe of the Wyndham Community Legal Centre. I was pleased to welcome shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus as a keynote speaker. The forum was an opportunity for the Wyndham Legal Service, the Footscray Community Legal Service and various community leaders and stakeholders to come together to discuss the issue of discrimination faced by many groups and their avenues to access justice, and the impact discrimination has on people's lives—discrimination in workplaces, in schools and in the broader community based on race, religion, gender and age. We heard from various speakers including Hon. Mark Dreyfus, Catherine Dow from the Footscray Community Legal Service and Melanie Schleiger from Legal Aid Victoria. It gave us an insight into the very important work that these legal services provide in case work and in advocacy. A highlight of the forum was a discussion on the differing power and effectiveness of case law compared to advocacy in educating the broader community.

This work can continue only if community legal centres are adequately funded. The forum highlighted the important work done in all of our communities by community legal centres, and I call on the Abbott government to value the work of our community legal services by reinstating the funding it has cut, which inhibits the important work they do particularly in my community.