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https://www.theguardian.com/law/2024/mar/25/community-legal-centres-turn-away-1000-australians-each-day-despite-growing-need-for-help>
"Community legal centres report having to turn away more than 1,000 people
every day last year due to budget constraints and short staffing – twice the
number they were able to help.
The sector has asked for an urgent funding boost as cost-of-living pressures
and poverty drive an increase in legal need, while its federal funding has
slipped behind inflation amid staff burnout and huge workloads.
The Community Legal Centre Australia chief executive, Tim Leach, warned that a
lack of proper legal representation would lead to people facing unnecessary
jail terms, homelessness or being forced to stay in unsafe relationships.
“We are experiencing a funding and workforce crisis, which we believe will
impact our ability to continue to provide services … we are not going to be
able to maintain even current services,” Leach said.
CLCA will on Monday launch a report, titled
A sector in crisis, after
surveying 117 community legal centres nationwide. The sector describes the
findings as grim, claiming “chronic underfunding has pushed community legal
centres to breaking point”.
Community legal centres provide support in areas including family law, family
violence, child protection, tenancy, consumer protection, social security,
refugee rights and anti-discrimination. Leach said community legal centres
provided free legal assistance to nearly 180,000 people in 2022-23 but demand
outstripping resources meant they also had to turn away 368,000 people seeking
help – more than 1,000 people a day. Nine out of 10 centres said demand for
services had increased in the last financial year.
“These are predominantly people experiencing financial hardship,” Leach said.
“They can’t afford private legal assistance, so they rely on free legal
assistance from us. If they don’t get it from us, they don’t get it from
anyone.”
The report says the sector needs 2,000 more workers to meet community needs.
Leach said low wages in the sector, when compared with Legal Aid or the private
sector, exacerbated staffing issues. Each centre needed 12 extra staff on
average, the sector estimated."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
