Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

With respect, Senator Thorpe, I'm not sure those figures that you're quoting are correct. I've said previously that our government—and, in particular, the Attorney-General, as someone who has spent a lot of his life working with community legal centres—is a very strong supporter of the community legal sector and has actually delivered far more funding than the figures you've quoted have referred to.

The Prime Minister's significant announcement following National Cabinet last week demonstrates our government's commitment to access to justice. First ministers have signed a heads of agreement for a new National Access to Justice Partnership and the new $3.9 billion agreement includes an $800 million increase on current funding levels for the legal assistance sector plus a commitment to ongoing funding. Every part of the sector will benefit from this $800 million boost, which will be shared between community legal centres, women's legal services, legal aid commissions, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services, and family violence prevention legal services. This is the biggest single Commonwealth investment in legal assistance ever and I congratulate the Attorney-General for his advocacy on this within government and, of course, congratulate the other ministers involved who've made this assistance happen.