Community Legal Centres: Budget and Other Attacks
Tuesday 29 July 2014 @ 11.23 a.m. | Judiciary, Legal Profession & Procedure | Legal Research
The Saturday Paper has reported that the federal government is using "money and law to close down criticism and gag the community’s most trusted voices". The claim is based on the drafting of revised service agreements which the federal government uses to provide funding to Community Legal Centres (CLCs) around Australia.
It is reported that recently 140 such agreements were sent out to CLCs and other non-government organisations. However, these were missing the former clause 5 relating to the Commonwealth's commitment to ensuring its agreements did not contain provisions which could be used to "stifle legitimate debate or prevent organisations engaging in advocacy activities.” The new revised agreements went out to CLCs in June 2014 and new conditions in the agreements, which came into force on 1 July 2014, specifically stated that organisations cannot use Commonwealth money for "any activity directed towards law reform or advocacy".
Background
Clause 5 was created in 2007 by the newly elected Labor Government following the Howard Government's attempts to gag the advocacy work of various aid groups, essentially by revoking their charitable funding where it was shown such was used for political advocacy. The issue then involved the Commissioner of Taxation arguing that charity funding could not be used for advocacy, a matter that went all the way to the High Court of Australia and saw the Commissioner loose.
The new agreements confirm a return to the Howard approach, an action already foreshadowed by the federal government, through the Attorney-General; namely, that its new funding agreements would include a requirement that CLCs will no longer engage in law reform advocacy using Commonwealth funds, a measure to be achieved by removing existing wording in clause 5 that currently said to protect CLCs from measures “that could be used to stifle legitimate debate” and from having to “obtain advance approval of any public debate or advocacy activities”.
These attempts to control the activities of CLCs in law reform advocacy are in addition to already announced federal budgetary cuts of $43.1 million (announced December 2013) and a further $6 million to take effect from 2017-18. Cuts which the Community Law Australia Chair, Liana Buchanan is quoted as saying:
". . . fly in the face of overwhelming demand. Community legal centres already report having to turn away one in five people needing their help. These cuts will see even more people turned away – people who cannot afford a private lawyer and have nowhere else to go for legal help with serious problems such as family violence, workplace mistreatment, homelessness, eviction, relationship breakdown and debt, . . .” .
Comment and Reaction
The federal government has been reported as justifying its actions by the Attorney-General saying that its budgetary cuts are "not directed at frontline services" and that "law reform advocacy" is not a correct use of taxpayer provided CLC funding.
In response the Community Law Australia Chair has said in a media release that:
“Contrary to statements from the Federal Government, these cuts are directed at frontline services. Having to close outreach offices and stop providing family violence support lawyers at court are just some of the actions centres will have to take because of these cuts."
In response to the amendment of service agreements to stop CLCs from working to change unfair laws, policies and practices that impact their clients the Community Law Australia Chair said in a media release:
“Through the thousands of people they see each year, CLCs are uniquely placed to see how laws and the legal system impact the community. Working to address broader barriers to justice through advice and submissions to government, education campaigns, test cases and public advocacy is a critical part of CLCs’ work. . . . In many instances, law reform and systemic advocacy is quite simply the most efficient and effective way a community legal centre can stop legal problems in the future and help more than just their individual clients".
A view that would appear to be backed by the Productivity Commission draft report on access to justice which appears to indicate that of the things CLCs do advocacy should be at the core, explicitly recognising the efficiency and community benefit of law reform and systemic work.
As the Community Law Australia Chair, Liana Buchanan also said in her media release:
“We need fair and workable laws, and fair access to legal help regardless of whether you can afford to pay a private lawyer. The funding cuts and effective gagging of community legal centres completely undermine that goal, and they worsen the access to justice crisis already faced by many Australians, . . .”.
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Sources:
- Brandis ties NGO funding to non-advocacy (The Sunday Paper - 29 July 2014)
- Attorney-general George Brandis set to silence CLCs (The Sunday Paper - 29 July 2014)
- Federal Budget exposes more funding cuts as A-G Brandis stops community legal centres speaking out on unfair laws and practices (Community Law Media Release - 29 May 2014)
- Productivity Commission Draft Report on Access to Justice
