Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Did you know that even with current funding levels, 160,000 people are turned away every year from community legal centres because they simply do not have the resources to help. Turned away, and to what? They are turned back to a violent partner, to homelessness and to simply not knowing what to do or where to go.

Thanks to this government, from July 1 these centres will be forced to turn away even more people as they cop a 30 per cent funding cut—a cut that will hurt the Elizabeth Evatt Legal Centre and the Hawkesbury Nepean Community Legal Centre in my electorate. This is a cut to services that are a place of last resort for many people, services that help with a range of things from tenancy issues to domestic violence, child support and fines—services that will now, at the hands of the Prime Minister, struggle to stay open.

Both the Hawkesbury and the Blue Mountains centres tell me that hours of operation will have to be cut and staffing levels will be lowered. The member for Calare should care about this too, because our centre services many people in Lithgow, Oberon and Bathurst.

We cannot expect pro bono work by lawyers to bridge this gap, as the Law Council of Australia President warned today. They already provide many hours of work but need a supported community legal centre structure to operate within. If something as valuable as a community legal centre is not safe from this government, then nothing is. I am wondering if anyone opposite has a conscience because, if you did, you could not let this happen.