Thursday, 31 October 2024

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:16): (720) Attorney, last sitting week in Queen’s Hall we heard from community legal centres about the essential services they are providing across the state. But we know that community legal services have a funding crisis, and while we understand that a funding decision is pending from your federal colleagues, my question today concerns Victorian state funding to the sector. Most services have to cobble together a patchwork of short-term grant funding. This means they spend a disproportionate amount of resources on an endless HR loop of advertising and recruiting, losing both time and expertise. Attorney, given we all want state funds to work smarter, will you commit to ensuring Victorian community legal centres receive funding on a rolling five-year basis rather than a short-term grant merry-go-round?

 Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:17): I thank Mr Puglielli for his question and his support for and interest in the community legal sector. I think it was a great expo that we had last week and a great opportunity for members to engage with the CLCs from their various regions. There is a CLC in every sector, and as you have identified, they work incredibly hard. It is a service that I am particularly supportive of. I fight very hard for their funding, and I am engaged in federal negotiations at the moment and hoping to have some news on that in coming weeks in relation to state government funding. I am always a strong advocate for CLC funding in the state budget process, and I will continue that advocacy.

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:18): The other funding dynamic is the fragmentation that occurs, because it is convenient for different government departments to have announcements about specific issues; however, it is a highly inefficient way of dispersing funding. We should be empowering community legal centres to provide services to whomever walks through their doors, not be constrained to providing services to those people who happen to have a predefined set of circumstances corresponding to a media release. This fragmentation impacts on their ability to deliver vital legal services to people in the community experiencing hardship. Attorney, will you commit to streamlining this by ensuring more core funding is provided that includes covering the real cost of running an organisation rather than funding by media release?

 Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:19): Mr Puglielli, there is some credit to the way you have articulated your question, but I would not want to disadvantage CLCs from being able to attract funding from a range of sources. I would like to point out that I am very proud that Victoria provides more funds for CLCs than any other state in the country. I have my regular round table. All the CLCs come together for a round table – I think that is next week or the week after – where we will discuss these important issues.

In terms of the funding that I provide, I can confirm that I do not do it because of a press release, I do it because CLCs are really good, and they deserve the funding to support Victorians.