Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Aston is a delightful individual! Sadly, he knows very little about this subject, which he is supposed to be representing the government on, and he does not defend the interests of those people whose interests he says he is looking after in the executive of this government. He does not look after their interests. I have just spoken about one community legal service. In its two years in power, the Abbott government has taken an axe to vital legal assistance services across this country. It has been evidenced today by the comments in the Northern Territory Supreme Court. The government has cut from every type of service. It has cut from legal aid, from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services, from family violence prevention legal services and from community legal centres. And these cuts are continuing.

In the 2014 budget, the government took another $15 million from legal aid and another $6 million from community legal services. Earlier this year, the government tried to back away from some of their cuts to the CLCs. They cannot be believed. When the member for Curtin got up here this afternoon and so glibly spoke about what the government says it has been doing, she was actually telling us a giant fib—because we know and it is the experience on the ground that the savage cuts they have made are hurting people across this country. (Time expired)

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