Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I will try to deal with these issues in turn. I will start by dealing with the sensible contribution that was made by the member for Brisbane. I thank him for his keen interest in law and order issues. I would be very pleased to go to visit him in his electorate and go down to talk to his constituents about what they require from the Commonwealth government in terms of law enforcement resources. I will continue to work with him to make sure that we are doing all that we can to keep his patch in Brisbane as safe as possible.

The member for Brisbane asked about the record investment that we are making in legal assistance services. I am very pleased to inform the House that in April this year my colleague and friend, the Attorney-General, Minister Cash and Minister Scullion announced that a further $55.7 million would be injected into the legal assistance sector over the next three years. That is $39 million to community legal centres and $16.7 million to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services. This is in addition to existing funding, including over $1.6 billion provided under the National Partnership Agreement on Legal Assistance Services. It represents the largest ever Commonwealth investment in legal assistance services on an annualised basis and a record Commonwealth commitment of over $1.7 billion over five years.

The budget builds on this government's earlier initiative of $45 million for frontline legal assistance and family law services provided through the 2015 Women's Safety Package and the Third Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children. This funding completely fixes the 'Dreyfus cliff' and reverses the 2013 MYEFO savings measure. The 'Dreyfus cliff' made up a majority of the reduction in funding expected by community legal centres from 1 July this year. For the last two decades, the Commonwealth's focus in legal assistance has been on Commonwealth criminal matters, Indigenous legal assistance and complex family law matters, generally involving family violence. Accordingly, the national partnership agreement, another Turnbull government legal assistance funding initiative, ensures that the Commonwealth funding is appropriately targeted.

We make no apology for not emulating the ad hoc funding approach that was so beloved by Labor. Labor was content to provide one-off funding to services, apparently selected by reference to little more than past practice. It was for the coalition government to establish an objective, evidence-based funding allocation model, moving to ensure that those most in need of help received it.

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