House debates

Monday, 2 December 2019

Adjournment

Welfare Rights Centre South Australia

7:40 pm

Photo of Steve GeorganasSteve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Today, I'd like to speak about the South Australian Welfare Rights Centre. In its 31-year history, it has provided community legal services. Its main work has been to provide free legal advice and assistance in the areas of tenancy and social security law, and even advice in assisting people who've been caught up in the robodebt debacle. Much of their work has, therefore, centred around Centrelink matters, homelessness issues and tenancy issues.

The Welfare Rights Centre has provided a well-utilised and much-needed duty solicitor program for people appearing in the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Anyone appearing before these tribunals needs to be well versed in the criteria applicable to the matter, and it can be an intimidating atmosphere at the best of times even for those who deal with it on a daily basis and especially for people who perhaps have had no contact with law courts, courts et cetera.

The Welfare Rights Centre has also trained a number of volunteers. Many volunteers, such as law students, have worked in their offices to be able to assist the very many cases and calls for help in these jurisdictions. Some lawyers have also volunteered their time over the years, and this has always been much appreciated by the Welfare Rights Centre South Australia and the clients that they have supported and assisted. Sadly, in a climate where financial counselling and legal aid have suffered major cuts, the funding for the important work of the Welfare Rights Centre on both a state and a Commonwealth level has been cut back—and not for the very first time.

As is now all too often the case for community services of this kind and of this nature, government funding models and guidelines at both levels of government have been subject to change and have often become inconsistent, making it difficult for many of these great community legal services to continue their work and to continue assisting people in navigating their way through the complex government offices—whether it be Centrelink or whether it be robodebt or just things like tenancy contracts.

Despite all this uncertainty, up until recently, the Welfare Rights Centre volunteers have managed to assist hundreds and hundreds of clients each and every year. As these screws and cuts are applied, due to an ever-reducing welfare budget, the eligibility reduction and the opportunity to report changes face-to-face has almost been obliterated when we look at the systems that have been put in place. This is a march towards self-reporting on the myGov website, where even the most competent user may produce two outcomes in areas like the carers allowance, income tests for various pensions and social pensions, disability support pension eligibility and the appalling robodebt debacle that we just heard the member for Isaacs talk about, for example.

The legal support provided to many robodebt victims by this service often resulted in Centrelink admitting that there was no debt to pay. Where would those people be if they were not able to access these legal services? Sadly, we're going to figure it out soon, because they won't be in existence—because of the cuts that have been made by the federal government and the state government.

The Welfare Rights Centre wound up recently due to nonfunding by both the federal government and the state government, and it's going to affect our most vulnerable people—as I said, people who need assistance and help to navigate these complex issues. How could it be that this service with such a long and proven track record of cost-effective assistance, often to the most vulnerable in our communities, has been closed, which, in turn, delivers a dire outcome for its clients? It comes down to cost. That's what we hear.

It is not on that both state and federal Liberal governments allow this to happen. I commend the Welfare Rights Centre for its invaluable work over the past 31 years; the wonderful staff they've had, the volunteers, for all their commitment and dedication in assisting and helping people. I'd urge the federal Attorney-General to ask his department to review immediately this terrible decision, and I hope that something can be done to reopen the doors of this crucial service that has assisted some of our most vulnerable people for many years through hard work, through volunteering, doing it all on a shoestring budget.