Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Moore, I did not mislead Australians. That is exactly what the Labor Party and the Greens have done in relation to this government's decisions on funding. It is a fact that the Commonwealth commitment to legal assistance over the next five years will total $1.6 billion across legal aid commissions, community legal centres and Indigenous legal assistance centres.

You will recall that earlier this year Senator Brandis and I made the decision to restore the funding cuts that would have taken place on 1 July this year. We made that decision and ensured that those cuts did not occur. I have always said and acknowledged that in the out years there is a reduction in funding. That will be looked at as part of the normal MYEFO or budgetary processes. What the current government is doing is nothing different to what the former government did. But the allegations that there have been funding cuts this year are untrue. (Time expired)