Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week, I met with Community Legal WA and was alarmed to hear of the currently unresolved funding crisis that they are under under this government.

Between 2022 and 2023, community legal centres have provided legal aid for over 180,000 Australians, with over 13 per cent being from my home state of Western Australia. A large number of these cases are family and domestic violence issues. The Prime Minister has said that domestic violence against women is a national crisis. I agree. He and his government constantly boast about their funding to support women's safety—then why won't the Prime Minister put his money where his mouth is and commit funding to a vital service that helps women, like Community Legal WA? Even with an independent review into the National Legal Assistance Partnership commissioned by the Attorney-General, which found a major lack of funding to these centres, the government has yet to decide whether they will continue to fund this service.

This is not a last-minute request from Community Legal. Since this government was elected in 2022, Community Legal has asked repeatedly for critical funding to not be ignored. So today I ask the Albanese government to respond to the request from Community Legal to bring clarity to this funding problem so that they can continue to provide their incredible services. This is particularly critical in my home state of Western Australia, given that we will have almost successive caretaker periods, with both the state and federal elections due to occur around a similar time. This issue must be resolved before Christmas so that their funding deeds can be in place and so that they can provide the assurance and surety to their staff, who, importantly, need to be able to continue with their work.