The ACT has joined a chorus of state governments condemning the Abbott government for cutting funding from community legal centres in last week's budget, saying the move is at odds with its commitment to tackle domestic violence.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It cited its priority of responding to domestic violence as a key reason for reversing the funding cuts.
But now, a collection of states and the ACT have accused the federal government of "drastically" reducing funding for community legal centres from 2017-18.
They claim funding for the centres will drop off considerably from 2017-18 onward.
In the ACT, the cuts will mean an estimated 30 per cent funding reduction for the ACT Women's Legal Centre and Canberra Community Centre, formerly the Welfare Rights and Legal Centre, from 2017-18.
Both play crucial roles in helping Canberra's most needy with legal issues, and the Women's Legal Centre helps many family violence victims navigate the court system.
Even with its current budget, the Women's Legal Centre is pleading for additional funds to employ a new solicitor to help deal with the demand from family violence victims.
The ACT government believes last week's budget will see the organisations lose $300,000 from 2017-18.
Attorney-General Simon Corbell joined counterparts from NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania to write to federal Attorney-General George Brandis in protest this week.
"Cuts of the magnitude forecast in the budget will severely impact upon access to these services," they wrote.
"This is at odds with both the Productivity Commission's recommendations in its report on Access to Justice Arrangements and the Commonwealth's own commitments to tackle domestic violence and indigenous disadvantage."
"The forecast cuts represent an abrogation of the Commonwealth government's responsibilities to this important area of service delivery to some of the most vulnerable in our community."
Mr Corbell also issued a statement on Wednesday, calling on the federal government to commit to better funding for the centres.
"The federal government guaranteed funding to support the most vulnerable in our community but the budget has shown a limit to that support," Mr Corbell said.
"This cut of almost $300,000 will take annual funding to well below current levels and easily more than negates any of the proposed increases over the next two years."
On top of that, Mr Corbell said the centres were facing a funding loss of between $30,000 to $40,000 because of current low interest rates.
There were also concerns about the budgets of legal aid commissions around the country.
Modest budget increases of 2 per cent to Legal Aid ACT have been criticised as nowhere near enough to cover growing demand on the service.
Mr Corbell said the cost of delivering services was growing by more than 2 per cent a year for Legal Aid, meaning the federal government's funding was effectively being reduced.
He described the budget as a "terrible blow" for those organisations.
