Palaszczuk Government allocates more funding for Community Legal Centres

The Palaszczuk Government has announced the allocation of an additional $4.796 million in funding for Queensland Community Legal Centres to ensure Queenslanders have access to legal services.

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Yvette D’Ath MP said the additional funding would support 10 organisations from 2017 to 2020. 

“This funding will go towards supporting legal services that assist with family law and family violence, which are two areas of law where demand for service is rapidly growing, especially in the community legal sector,” Mrs D’Ath said.

“This funding will be directed to community legal services based in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Mackay, Cairns and Townsville.

“I congratulate the successful applicants and thank all community legal centres who are on the frontline in supporting victims and vulnerable people in our communities.”

Mrs D’Ath said the new funding would complement the interim funding provided by the Queensland Government to 22 organisations impacted by the delay in funding from the Commonwealth Government earlier this year. 

“We are pleased the Federal Government has finally followed through on this funding and has provided certainty to Queensland Community Legal Centres.

“There were concerns that some Queensland Community Legal Centres would experience funding cuts because the Federal Government was initially going to slash funding to Queensland.

“Thanks to strong campaigning by Palaszczuk Government and Community Legal Centres across Queensland, at the 11^th hour the Federal Government announced it would reverse its planned cuts. The Palaszczuk Government then stepped in and provided interim funding to Community Legal Centres to ensure there were no funding shortfalls while the Commonwealth got their act together.

“I am pleased that more than $2.3 million of this total funding allocated has gone directly to reverse the reduced funding for core services over 2017-20.

“This means that the successful organisations will have the certainty they need to plan for future service delivery and support.

“Altogether, this will mean the community legal organisations will receive close to $60.4 million of combined State and Federal funding to deliver services until 2020.”

As part of this announcement Mrs D’Ath said a further funding of $790,000 over 2017-20 had been allocated for the Women’s Legal Service helpline over the same period.

“The Women’s Legal Service is an important part of Queensland’s response to domestic and family violence,” Mrs D’Ath said.

“Our Government provided the initial funding for the Women’s Legal Service to trial the hotline, and we are pleased to provide this additional funding to meet demand.”

Other services receiving funding include Mackay Regional Community Legal Centre, Gold Coast Legal Centre and Advice Bureau, North Queensland Women’s Legal Service, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Legal Service NQ, South West Brisbane Community Legal Centre, LawRight Inc and Caxton Legal Centre.

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