Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister representing the Attorney-General, Senator Watt. A recent independent review recommended the government provide an extra $459 million a year to the legal assistance sector and $215 million of emergency funding for this year alone to ensure frontline services can keep up with urgent needs in the community. Two weeks ago, your government committed a pitiful $100 million a year after indexation to help these services meet increasing demand. This is less than one-quarter of what is needed, Minister. As more and more First Peoples, women, children and vulnerable people are left without help, why has the government chosen to choke frontline services of the funding they need?

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to 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.

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

Minister Watt, please resume your seat. Senator Thorpe?

Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have a point of order. It's not a congratulatory question for you to talk about the Attorney-General—

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

Senator Thorpe, that is a debating point. Please resume your seat. Minister Watt, please continue.

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

The package the government has delivered will provide pay parity for the community legal sector so that lawyers and other workers in CLCs, ATSILSs, women's legal services and family violence prevention and legal services, who are mostly women, will no longer have to accept being paid up to 30 per cent less than their counterparts in legal aid commissions. This investment will mean that they can help more Australians and help more women safely leave and recover from violent relationships. By providing ongoing funding to the sector, we're helping to end the destructive uncertainty created by the former government, which left a decade of chronic underfunding in the legal assistance sector and a funding cliff. (Time expired)

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

Senator Thorpe, first supplementary?

Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services have described the insufficient announcement as a betrayal, saying it will mean only a fraction of people who need help will get it, including victims-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence. The chair said that the announcement confirms the government thinks that is okay. Minister, do you think that is okay?

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

I certainly think it's a very good thing that this government, the Albanese Labor government, has invested another $800 million in the community legal sector beyond funding that was already in the budget, and certainly beyond anything we've seen from any government before. My understanding is that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, in particular, will be beneficiaries, as they should be, of the extra funding and of what it will do for pay parity, particularly for the women who work in those legal services. As I say, the $800 million that we have dedicated is in addition to current funding which is already being provided, so this does mean that all parts of the community sector involved in legal advice will receive more funding. That includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services. They do terrific work, and they deserve the extra funding that they'll be receiving as a result of our government's decision.

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

Senator Thorpe, second supplementary?

Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

All this government's spin is smoke and mirrors to deceive people and the sector, and you know it. Does your government recognise that, unless you increase funding for this sector, more vulnerable women and children will be turned back to violence, more kids will be lost to a lifetime of incarceration and more people will die in custody? Will your government accept responsibility for this?

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

Again, Senator Thorpe, with respect, I don't think it is accurate or fair, whether it be to the government or to the legal services concerned, to describe an extra $800 million investment by this government as 'smoke and mirrors'—quite the contrary. I actually think it's substantial extra investment that will go a long way to ensuring, firstly, that the clients of those legal services—

Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I raise a point of order on relevance.

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

The minister is being relevant, Senator Thorpe.

Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I asked about taking responsibility for the women who will be turned away from domestic violence services and the children who will be incarcerated and the people who will die in custody. Do you take responsibility?

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

Senator Thorpe, I indicated that the minister is being relevant, and I will listen—

Senator Thorpe, you're not in a debate with me. I will continue to listen carefully to the minister's response.

Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tell that to the people out there begging for services.

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

Senator Thorpe, order! Minister Watt, please continue.

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

I think all of us are aware that, for some time, community legal services, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, have been struggling with the level of demand for their services, particularly in the family violence space, and that's exactly one of the reasons why our government has taken the decision to provide another $800 million in funding to services like that. It's exactly about ensuring that legal services don't have to turn away anywhere near as many people as they have previously. They had to do that because of the gross underfunding that we inherited from the former government, and now we're fixing it. An extra $800 million is a significant extra investment.