March 27, 2015 | Rosanna Di Grazia
The Federal Attorney-General George Brandis yesterday announced the reversal of significant funding cuts to the legal assistance sector over 2015–16 and 2016–17 made as part of the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) process in December 2013.
The reversal of funding cuts included community legal centres, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS), and State and Territory Legal Aid Commissions, but excluded Environment Defenders Offices, and the national Aboriginal legal peak NATSILS. Cuts planned for 2017–18 have also not been reversed.
The announcement confirmed that restrictions on advocacy imposed by the Attorney-General in July 2014 would be maintained.
In response to the announcement, the Federation and the National Association of Community Legal Centres issued media statements welcoming reversal of the cuts but highlighting continuing funding challenges, flawed implementation plans for broader sector reforms, and continuing advocacy restrictions on community legal centres.
A broad range of media reports resulted from these statements and media engagement by individual community legal centres and others, highlights of which are included here.
- Home truths on domestic violence, The Saturday Paper, 30 March 2015
- Committee examines impact of threat of legal funding cuts, ABC The World Today, 27 March 2015
- Regional Victorian community legal centres relieved over Federal funding cuts backdown, ABC News Online, 27 March 2015
- Brandis makes turn-around over legal aid cuts, Australian Financial Review, 27 March 2015 (Paywalled article)
- Tony Abbott kills $25m legal aid cut, The Australian, 27 March 2015 (Paywalled article)
- Government reverses cuts to legal aid, ABC Radio National Breakfast, 27 March 2015
- A-G Brandis talks to Michael Brissenden, ABC AM, 27 March 2015
- Government backflips on legal centre funding, ABC Radio National Drive, 26 March 2015
- Government backs down on legal centre cuts, ABC PM, 26 March 2015
- Abbott Government’s planned cuts to legal aid services now reversed, The Age, 26 March 2015
- Legal services for vulnerable groups spared cuts amid growing pressure, The Guardian Australia, 26 March 2015
- Federal Government backs down on planned cuts to community and Indigenous legal aid centres, ABC News Online, 26 March 2015
- Why is the government lying to Rosie batty?, Daily Life, 26 March 2015
- Liana Buchanan speaks on community legal centre cuts, The Project, 25 March 2015
Further media reports are available via the National Association of Community Legal Centres website.
For media inquiries, please contact Darren Lewin-Hill, Communications Manager, on 0488 773 535.
