October 25, 2024 | Katie Wand
Last week, the Federation hosted the inaugural Victorian Community Legal Centre Exhibition in the Queen’s Hall of the Victorian Parliament. Over three days, representatives from 43 Community Legal Centres attended the exhibition, to showcase their work and connect with Victorian parliamentarians.
Every Victorian Community Legal Centre was offered the opportunity to set up a stall in the Queen’s Hall, from which they could share important information and resources with MPs and advisers passing through.
The exhibition was overwhelmingly well received by MPs, many of whom expressed sincere gratitude for the lifechanging services offered by Community Legal Centres to people in their communities. Nearly every Victorian MP (out of 128) engaged with Community Legal Centres at the exhibition at some stage during the week.
Community Legal Centres provide services that intervene early, and provide support at times of crisis, transforming the lives of thousands of people every year. This also significantly reduces the pressure on other legal and government services as a result.
At last week’s event, Community Legal Centres were able to exhibit the value of their work and build trusted relationships with MPs. MPs learned about the many ways in which Community Legal Centres help them to help their communities, though service delivery, early intervention and avoided costs, and by providing an evidence base on how laws are affecting their constituents (and ideas for improvements). MPs were highly engaged and demonstrated genuine interest in tapping into the community legal sector’s expertise and knowledge to inform debate around law reform.
Community Legal Centres and MPs share a common goal of building communities that are stronger, happier and safer, and we are confident that this exhibition has provided pathways to work even more closely with MPs towards solving issues experienced by people in our community going forward.
On the Wednesday, we celebrated the Victorian community legal sector at a lunchtime event, which included some light bites and live music! Speaker of the House, the Hon Maree Edwards, Attorney-General the Hon Jaclyn Symes, Shadow Attorney-General the Hon Michael O’Brien, and Greens Justice Spokesperson Katherine Copsey MP gave short speeches, during which they shared their experiences and appreciation of Community Legal Centres and the work they do.
The exhibition was not only an opportunity for Community Legal Centres to network with MPs, but with other Community Legal Centres too. Community Legal Centres were able to form new connections, while strengthening established relationships within the sector.
The Federation thanks all the Community Legal Centres that participated in the exhibition, and the MPs who gave their time to speaking with community legal sector staff and learning about their work. Special thanks go to the Speaker for sponsoring us to run the Exhibition and without whom this exhibition would not have been possible.