Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The campaign against the government's cruel cuts to community legal centres is gathering steam. Domestic violence campaigner and former Australian of the Year Rosie Batty, who knows firsthand how vital community legal centres are in protecting victims of domestic violence, has started an online petition in the form of a letter to Malcolm Turnbull, calling for him to reverse the 30 per cent cuts due to come in on 1 July. In just over a week that petition has attracted more than 13,000 signatures—13,000 people who understand the importance of community legal centres keeping their doors open.

So why do the Attorney-General and his Prime Minister fail to listen? Are they deaf to the people who say that they have been helped, or who say that their lives have been saved, thanks to community legal centres? Rosie Batty herself now says: 'I do not know how to get through to George Brandis.' After a series of announcements in the early part of Prime Minister Turnbull's leadership, Ms Batty said that she has had no direct contact from ministers. It is shocking and shameful and they must do better.

The government can start by recognising the overwhelming support for community legal centres in this country and reversing these cruel cuts. For a government that says that it wants to do something about family violence to be cutting the frontline services that deal with family violence is truly shameful.