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The federal government marked one year of the National Access to Justice Partnership with a celebratory statement that ignored the fact that its funding commitment went nowhere near close to addressing the overwhelming and increasing demand for legal aid.
Earlier this month, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland used the first anniversary of the National Access to Justice Partnership (NAJP) to highlight that its first half saw close to 400,000 legal services delivered to almost 200,000 clients across the nation.
In the statement, Rowland added that the Albanese government has remained “committed to justice, providing access to legal advice and representation, and ensuring more Australians can get a fair go”.
What these figures omitted was that for every one person helped, two were sent away “because we don’t have the resources to assist them”, said Dr Tim Leach, CEO of Community Legal Centres Australia. Each year, the national network of 165 community legal centres (CLCs) assists about 190,000 people.
With domestic and family violence making up about 75 per cent of a centre’s work, it means centres are being forced to turn away a staggering number of vulnerable women and children.
“The increased funding from the Commonwealth, while welcome, went nowhere near being sufficient for us to significantly reduce the number of people that we are turning away each year,” Leach said.
In comments to Lawyers Weekly, a spokesperson for the Attorney-General said: "The National Access to Justice Partnership is the single largest Commonwealth investment in legal assistance ever, and provides vital funding certainty for the legal assistance sector.
"Under the NAJP, the government is investing approximately $1.8 billion over five years in quarantined funding for legal aid commissions."
To make matters worse, Dr Leach there have been inconsistencies in states and territories’ roll-out of NAJP funding. The NSW government has failed to roll out the $3.5 million in Commonwealth funding, while two other states have refused to provide security via five-year agreements despite these funds “being available and ready for that very purpose”.
Referring to the former, Leach said it has been “incredibly frustrating” for CLCs in the state who, every day, are “encountering people who desperately need legal assistance and cannot be helped because the centres don’t have the resources” held by the government.
“That’s a failing on the part of that particular state government, but it’s also a concern that, under the National Justice Partnership Agreement, that can be possible. How can you have money for a year and not distribute it?” Leach said in conversation with Lawyers Weekly.
“I think the [federal] government should be having frank discussions with state government about distributing those resources – that’s Commonwealth money which is intended to help with legal aid.”
Without security, Leach said community legal centres are unable to plan for service delivery or promote secure employment as a way of attracting and retaining lawyers, particularly with centres in many parts of the country currently “struggling with recruitment”.
The inadequate funding means workers at CLCs are paid lower wages than those within Legal Aid Commissions. It also contributes to the gender pay gap, with most workers being women or non-binary.
“If you can’t attract and retain staff, then you can’t deliver services, and these programs are all about providing services to people in need.
“You need to have the workforce to deliver that, and have proper funding so you can offer proper remuneration, and have funding security so employees feel safe and secure. They are really important components of being able to deliver that service,” Leach said.
A spokesperson for the Attorney-General said the state and territories have obligations under the NAJP, "including distributing and administering Commonwealth funding for the delivery of legal assistance services."
"The Commonwealth continues to work cooperatively with jurisdictions to ensure these obligations are delivered," the spokesperson added.
Leach said the danger in bringing governments together once every five years to discuss legal aid funding is that “sometimes, they think that after the agreement is signed, that’s the last they have to think about legal assistance funding”. He stressed this is not the case.
“There is not adequate funding in the system, we are turning away vast numbers of people who are in desperate need, and that is an issue for all governments, and they need to keep focused on that.
“Governments really need to pay attention to this because demand is going to go up, and more and more people are going to go without the legal help they need. That’s bad for those individuals, but it’s also bad for society as a whole,” Leach said.
The Attorney-General did not respond to requests for comment.
