Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

He did take the opportunity to put that into context, Senator. He did say 'to front-line services'. So where are the cuts? There are half a billion dollars in savings. So where are these cuts going to fall? They have got to fall on front-line services. I have said before that nobody—in particular, those in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and services—believes him that there are going to be no cuts.

I then went to the issue of the Family Violence Prevention Service and asked the minister why he cannot guarantee that that program will be continued. This program has been providing services for 15 years. In 2013-14 they had 5,330 clients, 15,707 advices, 60 per cent were of major or medium complexity and 409 community legal education projects have been delivered. This service need some certainty. It needs to know what is going to happen at the end of this financial year. But more concerning is that this program—and the Attorney-General has just referred to this program—was transferred from the Attorney-General's Department to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. I am advised that the funding guidelines state that the government intends for much of the funding to be available through open competitive grant rounds—the minister actually confirmed that—which will open on 8 September. But as of 14 August this year, the Family Violence Prevention Legal Service has not been able to confirm that legal assistance services are even eligible under the guidelines.

This service needs some certainty. We need to know what will be provided to women and their children who are experiencing family violence into the future. We need to know not only for services to clients but also for continuity of staff. Everyone of us here knows that when an organisation is facing potential closure staff will always go and look for alternative employment. That is just a reality. So this minister needs to give these services some certainty and he needs to give it right now. That is why I asked him today: would he guarantee that the Family Violence Prevention Legal Service could be guaranteed funding after 30 June next year? He did not answer that question. He could not answer that question and he should be able to. These services and their clients need certainty into the future.

With respect to the program that has been operating for over 35 years in the Ballarat community, I asked the question: can you guarantee that this service will be able to provide health services to the Aboriginal community of the Ballarat region? He, once again, could not answer. He would not and could not guarantee that those services will continue. I call upon the minister: please take hold of your department so that these services can have some certainty into the future to provide the services that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people so rightly deserve.