By Mikayla van Loon
An $800 million legal assistance package has come as a welcomed announcement from the Federal Government after months of advocacy from community legal centres.
The funding shortfall experienced by the community legal sector, who have been regarded as the quiet frontline workers in the family violence response, was reaching dire levels, with people being turned away from support.
Eastern Community Legal Centre (ECLC) chief executive officer Michael Smith said when around 75 per cent of his team’s resources, time and effort goes to supporting people navigating family violence, the acknowledgement of that work was reassuring.
“It’s a huge problem across eastern Melbourne, it’s a huge issue in the Yarra Ranges,” he said.
“So much of our time and effort goes into responding to family violence, whether it’s through the intervention work in the courts, or whether it’s through prevention programs or early intervention programs but often people don’t understand how important that legal support is.
“For the Prime Minister, National Cabinet and the Attorney General to talk about uplifting legal services responding to gender based violence is really critical.”
The multi-million dollar package will be delivered over five years from July 2025, with the final details of what that will look like for each service still to be decided.
It was announced at National Cabinet on Friday 6 September as part of the total $4.7 billion package designed to respond to the national crisis of family, domestic and sexual violence and support legal assistance.
Of the total package, the Federal Government will put $3.9 billion towards supporting frontline legal assistance services to be delivered through a new partnership agreement with the states and territories.
Renaming the assistance program, the newly created National Access to Justice Partnership will replace the National Legal Assistance Partnership (NLAP) due to expire on 30 June 2025.
Mr Smith said the ideal outcome for ECLC would be to use the extra funding to expand the wraparound team which supports people who have experienced family violence.
That would include the growth in the number of community lawyers, family violence advocates and financial counsellors.
The announcement also allowed for “improvements in indexation” to ensure the underpayment of staff was dismantled and achieved an equal outcome for all in the legal assistance sector.
“The fact [that the government is] prepared to respond to those structural issues as well just shows a really strategic approach,” Mr Smith said.
“It’s not all about service delivery, it’s about making sure the organisation is sustainable and looks after its people as well. So that’s really pleasing too that the government understands that, it’s really encouraging.”
The community legal sector had been calling for an increased budget spend in May but were disappointed in the allocation of funds.
Mr Smith said since then, talks with Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, both directly at events and at ECLCs offices, as well as indirectly through community legal advocacy bodies, had been extremely positive.
“The Attorney General Mark Dreyfus has been here a number of times, but he’s been to community legal centres across the country, and he’s been a really strong advocate to take this forward too.
“So I think he’s done a really impressive job in terms of actually arguing that, both locally here, but also to take that message back to Canberra to his colleagues.”
In the joint announcement with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Mr Dreyfus said funding was critical to ensure “essential frontline services” continue operating to help the most vulnerable.
“I have spent decades fighting for a better deal for the legal assistance sector. Legal assistance is essential to ensuring access to justice and equality before the law for all Australians, and safety for victims and survivors of family, domestic and sexual violence,” Mr Dryefus said.
“I thank the many workers on the frontline who have been tireless advocates for the sector and for the rights of the thousands of Australians who rely on them every year.”
Mr Smith said ECLC had previously been on the receiving end of Mr Dreyfus’ determination to fund legal services, with the Healesville office being made possible the last time he held the position of Attorney General over 10 years ago.
To have received this funding news now, Mr Smith said he was “very pleasantly surprised” because it was not expected this early.
“We were concerned we would have to wait because the national agreement doesn’t start until July next year.
“People were really worried we might not hear anything until December and there’s a few state elections coming up too, then if we go into next year, there’s going to be a federal election, and then there’ll be the main budget.
“Technically our contract only runs to June next year, and after that, there was no certainty whatsoever.”
Mr Smith said an announcement of this significance would give staff and community legal centres across the country confidence heading into 2025 that funding will at least remain stable until the new partnership agreement is instated.
