By JESSE GRAHAM
A FREE legal service for people in the Yarra Valley may have to dial back services to needy areas unless cut funding is restored, with Labor pledging assistance if elected next week.
But the CEO of the service said that no party had yet come through with definite funds to fill the $400,000 hole left by federal cuts.
On Monday 10 November, Labor Shadow Attorney General Martin Pakula visited Healesville’s Eastern Legal Community Centre (ECLC) with Eildon candidate, Sally Brennan, and Evelyn candidate, Peter Harris.
The visit followed an announcement on 31 October that Labor, if elected on 29 November, would establish a $2 million Community Legal Centre Assistance Fund to help individual centres.
The fund was in response to funding cuts to community legal centres in the Federal Budget, and centres could apply for funding over two years of the fund to help ease financial stress.
While ECLC CEO Michael Smith welcomed the announcement, he said his organisation – which services the entire Yarra Ranges – would still have to look at winding back services.
“The outlook is kind of complicated – the centre is determined to keep an office open somehow,” he said.
“But it’s really challenging – the more we do, the more need we get.
“Our outreach to Yarra Junction might have to be less, and we’re doing great work there – we would like to grow that service, rather than having to shrink.”
ECLC runs from an office in Healesville, as well as Boronia, with outreach programs in various towns in the Yarra Ranges, and provides free legal advice for issues such as family violence, among others.
Mr Smith said the Coalition had also been in discussions about increasing funding to handle family violence work through CLCs, but that no announcement specifically for the Eildon electorate had been made.
He said Labor’s assistance fund would be a step in the right direction – albeit a small one.
“On principle, it’s an important thing to have those funds, so that we can apply for and hopefully meet that application,” he said.
“But in terms of the local CLC for the Yarra Ranges and Healesville, we would prefer that there was a local commitment made,” he said.
Ms Brennan told the Mail that the assistance fund would help ECLC to stave off potentially closing their Healesville service, and that her party had an ‘absolute commitment’ to CLCs.
“For a lot of women living with domestic violence, this is the end game – this is where all the work with agencies, all the support, all the trust comes together at this point and there’s a final solution,” she said.
“When they go to court and take legal action, that’s often the culmination of months, sometimes years of work.”
The Victorian State Election will be held on Saturday 29 November.
On Friday 21 November, Yarra Valley FM 99.1 will be hosting a candidates’ forum for Eildon, in conjunction with the Mail at Healesville’s Memo Hall, running from 7-8.30pm.
For more information, or to register for the event, visit www.yarravalleyfm.com.
