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

I rise this morning to commend to the House the work of the WEstjustice Western Community Legal Centre. This is an incredibly important organisation that does incredibly important work across the west of Melbourne. Nowhere is this work more important than in the electorate of Lalor, where we have 200,000 residents of the City of Wyndham, many whom are new arrivals and young families—60,000 families. We have in our area the highest eviction rates in the state. We have high rates of mortgage stress. We have incredible communities developing on the edges of the city, where we are welcoming emerging communities and assisting in the settling of refugees.

The work of WEstjustice in this space is incredibly important. They run some great programs supporting people, and they do this in a difficult funding environment. They are not wholly reliant on government funds—neither state nor federal. They receive funds from a range of philanthropic sources and, as we all know in this place, that is tireless work—submission writing and meeting with people to attract funds into what are critical services for my area. They are creative in working with others—with local government, with state government and with business. They run youth casework services. They run refugee casework services. They run family violence services. They run a mortgage stress clinic in Melton that they would desperately like to bring to the city of Wyndham. They run a lawyer in schools program—the first in the state—and they have a lawyer in the emergency department at the Mercy Hospital for domestic violence one day a week. They have assisted over 4,500 people over the last year. They have made 100 presentations and they have written 16 reports and submissions, including submissions to the Senate. They take their work seriously. They represent the community seriously as well.

This very important work is under threat, with a $170,000 budget cut from this government. That will impact directly. They will lose three positions when that funding goes. That will impact on the youth casework services. The centre provides three days of casework services to vulnerable young people in my community. It will impact on the refugee casework services. The centre provides a range of casework, community development and education services for newly arrived migrants. It will impact on family violence services in my community. I implore this government to re-evaluate the decisions they have made about the cuts to the community legal services in this country, and specifically to WEstjustice in my electorate of Lalor.