Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to express the outrage that many in my electorate are feeling over the Attorney-General's reckless cuts to our community legal centres. As a result of a very poor decision by the Attorney-General and this government, from 1 July this year, community legal centres across Australia will lose 30 per cent of their funding. Yet again, the government have highlighted how incredibly out of touch they are with everyday Australians. They have zero understanding of how devastating these cuts will be for thousands of people. Today, I give the Attorney-General some insight and tell him how important the work of our community legal centres is, but in particular the Southern Community Justice Centre in my electorate.

For over three decades, the Southern Community Justice Centre has provided free and accessible legal services to the most disadvantaged members of our community. The compassionate, knowledgeable and dedicated staff of the Southern Community Justice Centre work tirelessly to help vulnerable people navigate what can often be a very complex legal system. One of the centre's most important roles is to provide support for victims of domestic violence. Women who flee domestic violence situations often lose access to their money and have nowhere to run. The Southern Community Justice Centre is there to help these women face the many legal issues that arise during this traumatic time.

The justice centre also provides advocacy and advice to people on a range of other issues like tenancy disputes, debt, consumer problems, contract disputes and financial scams. The centre's executive director, Cathy, provided me with a couple examples of the work they do. One gentleman came to the justice centre in a helpless financial situation after losing thousands of dollars in a scam. He signed up for a money-back guarantee treatment for a medical condition he had. Twelve months later, the treatment had done nothing. Despite his efforts, the company refused to refund him. Desperate and with nowhere else to go, this man approached the justice centre. They fought for him, and he successfully received a refund of $1,500. This might not seem a lot to the Attorney-General, but it was a lot to this gentleman.

Another example is a mother who came to South Australia with her child after fleeing a domestic violence situation. When in South Australia, the mother got some money together and applied to the court to change the child's surname to hers. She then went to submit the application to births, deaths and marriages, only to be told that recent changes now meant she had to apply to the court. Of course, this was an involved, complex legal situation—and just another example of the good work community legal centres do.