ARC chief executive Damian Stock said underfunding, funding insecurity and rapidly growing need were forcing services such as the Goulburn Valley Community Legal Centre in Shepparton and Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre in Bendigo to turn away clients.
“Already this year, we’ve had to turn away just over 400 clients; a quarter in the family law space, where we know family violence is often a factor too,” he said.
“While ARC is fortunate to have more funding security than some other community legal centres across the country, we’re absolutely seeing the real-world impact of the funding squeeze.”
That’s why ARC Justice — a rights-based, for-purpose organisation incorporating community legal centres in Bendigo and Shepparton — has joined the Save Community Legal Centres campaign, launched in Canberra last week, calling for increased, sustained investment in the national community legal sector.
“Every year, community legal centres like ours help thousands of people with legal problems in areas like family law, housing and tenancy, insurance, family violence and civil law, but we know the demand for services far outstrips the capacity of centres to help,” Mr Stock said.
“We also know wages in our highly feminised sector are lower than those for similar roles in the public and private sectors, leaving our workforce struggling in the face of heightened cost-of-living and housing pressures.”
The campaign calls on the Federal Government to take a leadership role in national funding negotiations and commit to three critical investments.
1. Immediate funding injection of $35 million to address the workforce crisis, as recommended by the Independent Review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership.
2. Additional $135 million each year to sustainably address overall community demand.
3. Additional $95 million each year to fully meet domestic and family violence demand.
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