Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are two legal services I want to talk about in my electorate that provide services for refugees—the Immigration Advice and Rights Centre, which is located in my electorate, and the Refugee Advice and Casework Service, which was in my electorate until August this year but has now relocated to Randwick and stills hold legal help services and refugee clinics at UTS in my electorate on Monday and Wednesday nights. I want to talk about these two services very briefly because if we have a just and methodical refugee intake in Australia one of the most important things is to understand the necessity for people to be able to make their legal case. The application process might include 80 pages of forms to fill in and a statement of claim that might take three hours to write. When you consider that many of the people who are filling in these forms and making these statements do not have English as a first language, you come to understand the importance of having legal advice during the process and consistent legal advice throughout a case.

In the case of the Immigration Advice and Rights Centre, a not-for-profit centre, they have in the past depended on funding from Commonwealth and state legal aid and some funding from the Immigration Application Advice and Assistance Scheme. Two-thirds of the funding comes from the Commonwealth and state legal aid systems. In early 2014, criteria changes for the use of the IAAAS funding had a huge impact on the casework of this centre. The centre can no longer use the money for matters at the tribunal or for any tribunal decisions being remitted back to the department. That means they are forced to find funding from other sources to do the bulk of their work. Of course, with uncertainty about legal aid funding, that funding source becomes very tenuous.

The Refugee Advice and Casework Service do an absolutely magnificent job. In the last year they helped almost 3,000 people. They ran 66 community education sessions giving people information about refugee law and processes. They helped 115 refugees with information about helping their partners and children join them in Australia. And, very importantly, they represented and supported about 100 children in Australia without their parents. They have also seen real pressure on their funding. There has been a reduction in access to the Translating and Interpreting Service and other cuts. That means they are turning people away. There are people who receive no assistance with their applications— (Time expired)