Senate debates

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

Questions without Notice

Family Violence Prevention Legal Services Program

2:47 pm

Photo of Nova PerisNova Peris (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General, Senator Brandis. I refer to the Family Violence Prevention Legal Services program, and I acknowledge some of the representatives who are here in the chamber today. This program is the only national front-line legal support service that specifically caters for Indigenous women and children escaping family violence, and it services Indigenous communities in 31 remote regional areas. Can the Attorney-General confirm that your government cut $3.66 million from this vital front-line service in December 2013?

2:48 pm

Photo of George BrandisGeorge Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Senator Peris, for that question. What I can tell you is that legal assistance in Australia is the subject of a current review. The three principal bases upon which the Commonwealth delivers legal assistance—through payments to the state and territory legal aid commissions, through payments to the community legal centres and through payments to the ATSILs—are all under review. I can also tell you, Senator Peris, that one of the first decisions that I made as Attorney-General in the access to justice area was to give an instruction that all of the Commonwealth's contribution to legal assistance should be concentrated on casework, so that that proportion of the Commonwealth's legal assistance that was spent on what is sometimes known as policy work or advocacy work—or the work of, for example, environmental defenders' organisations; so-called—which was diverted from casework, should all be concentrated and focused on casework. That said—and I hope you might even agree with me about this, Senator Peris—it seems to me that in an arena where resources are limited, and where the demand for those resources outstrips the supply of those resources, the just thing to do is to concentrate 100 per cent of the expenditure of those resources on the people who need it most. And that is what I have done.

But that said, Senator Peris, you know—everybody in Australia should know—that when the Abbott government was elected nearly a year ago, we had to find savings because the previous government had wasted so much public money. And unfortunately the legal aid assistance programs had to bear some of those savings—(Time expired)

2:50 pm

Photo of Nova PerisNova Peris (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question: is the Attorney-General aware that in the Northern Territory an Indigenous woman is 80 times more likely to be hospitalised for assault than any other Territorian? What is the Attorney-General going to do about that?

Photo of George BrandisGeorge Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | | Hansard source

Senator Peris, what the government is going to do about that is what this government has always done—and that is to focus the Commonwealth's contribution—the Commonwealth's resources—on where they are needed most. That is always what it has been our intention to do.

Senator Peris, I am able to tell you, incidentally, that the four-year spend on the Family Violence Prevention Legal Services program to which you referred in your primary question will be $3.657 million. And—as I said in answer to the primary question—I of all people, who have throughout my professional career been a very strong advocate of access to justice, am very sorry that there is not more money in the system to spend. But if you ask yourself the question, Senator Peris, 'and who is at fault because there is not as much money available as we would wish there to be?'—don't look on this side of the chamber. Look among your own!

2:51 pm

Photo of Nova PerisNova Peris (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. I refer to the claim by the Minister for Indigenous Affairs that government cuts to Indigenous programs would not have any impact on front-line services. Will the Attorney-General today commit to maintaining funding for the Family Violence Prevention Legal Services program in order to safeguard the important front-line services it provides for Indigenous women and children?

Photo of George BrandisGeorge Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | | Hansard source

In the answer I have just given you, I have given you the commitment and I have indicated to you the amount that the government will contribute to that particular program over the next four years. That is your answer. I know you care about this area, Senator Peris. In fact, during the recess—at your suggestion—I took some time to visit NAAJA in Darwin, and I spent a couple of hours with them. They do a very fine job. This is really an area in which there ought not to be so much party political division, because both sides of politics are committed to access to justice. But if you want to find the villain, do not look here; look right there at the person who was the finance minister in the Labor government which returned the six biggest budget deficits in Australian history, with which we were left to deal and to find the economies to bring the budget back on track. (Time expired)