THE HON MARK DREYFUS QC MP
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE ARTS
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
GRAHAM PERRETT MP
SHADOW PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
MEMBER FOR MORETON
MEDIA RELEASE
LEGAL SERVICES CUTS HURTING MOST VULNERABLE, WHILE TONY ABBOTT WORRIES ABOUT HIS OWN JOB
This Budget is all about saving Tony Abbott's job - not about doing whats right for the future.
In last years Budget, the Abbott Government inflicted cruel funding cuts on vital frontline legal assistance services. Tony Abbott showed his dishonesty by ripping $15 million from Legal Aid Commissions and $6 million from Community Legal Centres.
This followed cuts the Government had already made in MYEFO late in 2013, when the Government cut $43 million from Legal Aid, Community Legal Centres, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and Family Violence Prevention Legal Centres.
Tony Abbott's cuts are making things worse for the most vulnerable in our community, especially women and children affected by domestic violence, and Indigenous Australians.
Most community legal centres still have no funding certainty beyond the end of the financial year. The uncertainty created by the Abbott Governments dishonest and incompetent approach to legal assistance services has seen centres across the country lose staff and reduce services.
WEDNESDAY 6 MAY 2015
