Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

As I say, Senator Lambie, we very much understand the financial difficulties that many community legal services are under and have been under for a long period of time. I'm sure—within my notes here, somewhere—I could talk about the underfunding of those services by the former coalition government, but we're more interested in trying to sort out the problem and provide them with the funding that they need.

As I say, the new five-year agreement, which is expected to come into force in a bit over 12 months time, would be the vehicle to provide longer term funding for those services. I'm sure you're aware that we have now—only very recently, since the most recent budget—received the report of Dr Warren Mundy to review the current Legal Assistance Partnership agreement between the Commonwealth and the states. That has provided us with good advice that we can take into account in working out the proper funding level, going forward.