Thousands will be denied basic legal advice in Launceston if funds to the region’s community legal centre are slashed come July 1.
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Already this financial year, 532 people have come to the centre looking for advice on civil disputes – but the centre has been forced to show them the door because it cannot fund enough lawyers to keep up with demand.
The funding crisis is expected to worsen next financial year, with the centre likely to lose about $150,000 – the equivalent of 1.5 lawyers.
The cuts mean some residents will be forced to seek legal advice from expensive law firms instead.
“It equates to losing one-and-a-half solicitors on the front line and me going part time,” Launceston Community Legal Centre chief executive Nicky Snare said on Tuesday.
“We are so close to the bone anyway that we can’t cut rent or electricity or running costs anymore… 82 per cent of our cost is in wages.
“Up to probably 30 people a week won’t be able to get assistance.”
LCLC has seen 2354 clients and turned away 1366 in the last 18 months.
LCLC provides free legal advice to the most vulnerable, including the homeless and disabled.
Attorney-General George Brandis said the federal government was pouring money into critical legal services Australia-wide.
He said the previous government was to blame for the crisis facing the centre and others around the country.
“When in government, the Labor Party through then Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus allocated an amount of funding but decided it would expire on 30 June 2017,” Senator Brandis said.
Bass Labor MHR Ross Hart has called on the government to “act immediately”.
“We know that for every dollar of government funding (for legal services) the return on investment is more than seventeen dollars (saved in court costs), that’s value for money,” he said.
“Instead what Senator Brandis is proposing will hurt this community and will be a financial drain on our local economy, an economy that needs to be more productive not less.”
Mr Hart said Labor was responsible for injecting more than $70 million into Australia’s legal services over four years, but Senator Brandis was now taking that away and blaming Labor.