George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I of course note that this is Senator Mason's valedictory question, something that I must note with a good deal of nostalgia. There will be many occasions in coming days and week to felicitate you, Senator Mason, and celebrate your contribution to this chamber over the last 15 years, but may I say during the course of question time today that it has been a distinguished contribution and a great association.

At one o'clock this afternoon I was able to announce more good news from the Abbott government—that the changes to the Commonwealth's contribution to legal assistance, announced from 1 July 2015, will not proceed. That means that the final two years of supplementary funding previously allocated to community legal centres will be restored, with benefits to 61 centres. Funding to the Indigenous Legal Assistance Program will be restored so that in 2015-16 and 2016-17 the MYEFO savings measure will not take effect, and funding from the Expensive Criminal Cases Fund will be restored, so that savings measure will not take effect. The aggregate effect of these announcements will be to restore $25.5 million in Commonwealth contribution over the next two years to Commonwealth legal assistance. That will mean that community legal centres—