Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General. How will the measures announced last Friday help end the crisis in legal assistance in this country and enable more women to get the help they need to safely leave a violent relationship?

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wills for his question. The Prime Minister's announcement, following a National Cabinet meeting on Friday, was very significant, demonstrating the commitment of the Albanese Labor government to ending violence against women and children in a generation. As the Prime Minister said on Friday, the $4.7 billion package includes $3.9 billion for the five-year National Access to Justice Partnership, and that includes an $800 million increase on current funding levels for the legal assistance sector plus—and this is very significant—a commitment to ongoing funding.

Every part of the legal assistance sector will benefit from this $800 million boost, which will be shared between community legal centres, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services, women's legal services, legal aid commissions and family violence prevention legal services. It's the biggest single investment in the legal assistance sector ever by the Commonwealth. This package will provide pay parity for the community legal centre sector so that lawyers and other workers in community legal centres, Aboriginal legal services, women's legal services and FVPLSs—themselves mostly women because most of the workers in this sector are women—will no longer have to accept being paid up to 30 per cent less than their counterparts in legal aid commissions.

Legal assistance providers such as the Northern Community Legal Centre, which serves the electorate of Wills, are on the frontline of the fight to end gender based violence, but community legal centres, including women's legal centres, are currently turning away up to 1,000 people per day. This investment in legal assistance will ensure that those services can help more Australians. This investment in legal assistance services will ensure that these services can help more women, including First Nations women, safely leave and recover from violent relationships.

By providing ongoing funding to the sector, we help end the destructive uncertainty created by the former government. Now legal services can hire new staff, take up new premises and plan with confidence for the future. The Liberals oversaw a decade of chronic underfunding—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know you don't like it, but you've got to listen.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Attorney-General will pause. That is not an invitation to—

Honourable members interjecting—

Order! The manager has the right to ask a point of order.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's on relevance. It was in fact a commendably tightly drafted question. There was no reference to alternative approaches. The Attorney-General of all people should be able to follow the standing orders and control his temper.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You should control your temper!

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Attorney-General will pause and take his seat for a moment. The Attorney-General was not asked about alternative approaches, in the question. I'm going to ask him to conclude his answer about government policy, or he will resume his seat.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Only a Labor government is genuinely committed to the legal assistance sector and the essential work that they do to keep women safe.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What a joke!

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Riverina will cease interjecting.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You're a disgrace.

A government member interjecting

It's about domestic violence.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While I can appreciate that the member for Riverina has passionate views, he will just remain silent.