Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Attorney-General. Chronic underfunding of community legal centres is forcing centres to turn away more than a thousand Australians every day. Not only did the budget fail to provide desperately needed funds to address workforce shortages and increasing demand; it does not provide commitment to funding beyond June 2025 in the forward estimates. Tasmania has the lowest ratio of legal practitioners to population of any jurisdiction in this country, with a lack of lawyers placing more pressure on the legal assistance sector. At the same time, Commonwealth funding for community legal centres has not kept pace with the population growth in Tasmania. Why is the government neglecting to appropriately fund community legal centres in Tasmania and across the rest of the nation?

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

Thank you, Senator Lambie. I can assure you that I very much understand the important role that community legal services play. In my much younger days, I did quite a bit of volunteer work in community legal services both in Melbourne and, I think, in Brisbane as well, to my recollection. They play a vital role in providing legal advice and legal services to some of the most disadvantaged members of our community. That's exactly why in this year's budget the government announced $44.1 million of urgent funding, for this coming financial year, to help legal assistance providers address current resource and workforce issues until the new National Legal Assistance Partnership agreement commences, on 1 July 2025. The forming of that new agreement, which commences in just over 12 months time, is the key point in time in which we can lock in longer term funding for community legal services, but we recognise that it is important to make sure they have the funding they need to get them through to that point in time so that they can meet the very real resource and workforce issues that many of them have.

The new National Legal Assistance Partnership between the Commonwealth and all states and territories is intended to be a five-year agreement to fund vital legal assistance services for the most vulnerable Australians. As I say, it's through that longer term agreement, which will commence in a bit over 12 months time, that we will be seeking to lock in longer term funding and provide certainty for community legal services. That requires negotiations with the states and territories, and, inevitably, that takes a period of time, but we didn't want to leave those community legal services stranded without the extra resources that they need in the meantime. That's why we provided that urgent funding through this year's budget, and I certainly hope that that goes some way to meeting the needs of those services.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Lambie, first supplementary?

Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, you did provide that funding, but the additional funding needed was $125 million—you were way off and way short—to address funding issues for community legal centres, which will be used to keep the doors open and employ around 2,000 full-time staff to simply meet the demand. With just $9.3 million in extra funding provided in the budget, does the government have a plan to address this funding shortfall, and when will the government commit the necessary funding to community legal centres to ensure access to justice is maintained into the future?

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to 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.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Lambie, second supplementary?

Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The community legal sector is a female dominated workforce, with salaries significantly less than in private practice or for equivalent positions within government, by as much as 35 per cent. If the government is serious about addressing the gender pay gap, what is the government doing to address the gender pay gap experienced by those employed in community legal centres across the country, especially those women?

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

You're right, Senator Lambie. In my experience many—a majority, in fact—of the staff who work at community legal services are women, and, just like in every other part of the workforce, unfortunately, too many of them continue to experience the gender pay gap. More broadly, one of the things that this government is most proud of is the fact that we have reduced the gender pay gap—to the lowest it has ever been, on record—across the entire economy, but we recognise that a gap still exists, including in legal services, and that's something that we want to tackle.

It would certainly be our intention that the extra funding that was provided in this year's budget and that will inevitably be provided in the next five-year agreement would go some way to meeting those issues. Of course, it wasn't that long ago that, under a Labor government, we did see a significant pay rise for workers in the community sector, including these legal services, the majority of whom are women. Labor has a pretty good track record in trying to meet those needs in those services, and we'll continue to do what we can. (Time expired)