TV Interview ABC – Afternoon Briefing

EO&E

Subjects: Meeting of National Cabinet; Legal Assistance Funding

MATTHEW DORAN: Well, let's take you to Melbourne this afternoon, where we're joined this Friday by the Federal Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus. Attorney-General, welcome back to Afternoon Briefing. Thanks for making the time for us today. I'm keen to drill down on some of the figures that we've seen announced from National Cabinet today. A couple of billion dollars. It is a large figure, but some of these funding agreements were due to expire at the end of the next financial year anyway. How much of this commitment is actually above the spending that we're currently seeing in this space?

ATTORNEY-GENERAL MARK DREYFUS: What we've got here is the largest increase, Matt, in legal assistance through a new National Access to Justice Partnership. We've got the largest increase in Commonwealth funding in more than 20 years. And of the excellent announcements that have come out of National Cabinet today, a National Cabinet that was devoted to looking at what we can do to end family, domestic and sexual violence, we saw a fantastic announcement about the National Access to Justice Partnership. It's going to have $3.9 billion in it, which is around $800 million more than the existing Commonwealth funding. As you just heard Katherine McKernan from National Legal Aid explaining, very well, this is a very, very welcome boost in funding because it's going to let the sector deal with things like pay parity. It's got indexation. It's going to stop centres from closing their doors. It's going to make sure that workers in the legal assistance sector won't be needing to be laid off. It gives certainty most of all, and that's something that the sector has been calling for many, years.

DORAN: You and I have discussed quite a bit over the last couple of years some of the funding problems when it does come to legal aid, community legal centres, discussions around whether or not that area has been neglected for some time. Does this, in your view, go far enough to address some of those funding shortfalls that have existed over the last couple of years?

ATTORNEY-GENERAL: It's been welcomed by the sector. As I say it's the largest increase for over 20 years. It will go a very long way to meeting the large unmet legal need that we have in this country. It will help Legal Aid Commissions provide more services. It will help Community Legal Centres provide new services. It will help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services provide more. And it will help the Family Violence Prevention Legal Services which serve Indigenous women in remote Australia. We know from the campaign that the sector has mounted in recent years just how important it is that these services be properly funded. I'd like to commend the sector, not just for the way they've advocated for more funding, but for the work that they do every day. I've often said that some of the hardest and best legal work that's done in Australia is done by people in the legal assistance sector. I'd thank them for that work that they do day in, day out.

DORAN: And just for our viewers, a little bit of interference on the line to you in Melbourne there, Attorney-General. But we are battling on and we are hearing you loud and clear at the very least. I do want to pick up on an issue you would have heard us discuss with Katherine McKernan, and that is that of pay parity and just how difficult it is to keep and retain staff working in these frontline legal services dealing with family and domestic violence. How much of a challenge do you see that, and are you concerned that, you know, when we're talking about in other frontline services, the discussion around getting 500 frontline workers to deal with family and domestic violence services, we're falling short of that target. That throwing more money at the situation at the moment might not quite cut the mustard?

ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Pay parity is something that will make sure that in different parts of the sector lawyers, support workers, social workers, all the other people who work in legal assistance services, get paid the same for doing the same work. And it will stop, I hope poaching between different parts of the sector. It will lead to greater stability in workplaces. Again, it's something that the sector has long called for, and it's very pleasing that we are now in a position with these very large funding increases to be able to do something about pay parity. I'm very pleased that the Prime Minister and the First Ministers of our country have now reached this in-principle agreement. I'm looking forward to working with state Attorneys-General over the course of the rest of this year to nail down the last details. But what we've got going forward here is not just money for the five years starting on the 1st of July 2025, but ongoing funding. Something that the sector has long called for instead of what was the situation up until today, which is that the sector was facing a funding cliff because the former government had provided nothing after the 1st of July 2025. We've got money for the five years after that and we've got ongoing money after that. It's really important. It means that the sector can plan. It means that Legal Aid Commissions, Community Legal Centres, Aboriginal Legal Services will know where they stand. They'll be confident they can hire new staff, take on new premises, organise their work with the confidence that there's ongoing support from the Commonwealth and the States.

DORAN: You've spoken about some of the work that you still need to do with State and Territory Attorneys-General in this space when it comes to funding, but I know that there is also discussion happening around harmonising laws, making sure that the legal framework to protect victims, survivors of family and domestic violence, those who are concerned about their safety, is uniform across the board. What are some of those areas that you think looking at this from a federal level, that the states and territories need to find some common ground on to, help protect people in that way?

ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Well, no one's pretending, Matt, that there's a single solution for a very difficult task of ending domestic family and sexual violence in our country and protecting women and children. No one pretends that it's any one measure that's going to work. There's a whole range of measures I've got in my portfolio. Amendments to the Family Law Act which are directed at domestic family and sexual violence. We've got a bill in the Parliament that I introduced in the last sitting week, which is going to require the judges in family law parenting and property matters to take family violence into account. We've got an information sharing change of law that came into effect on the 6th of May. And another aspect of this package announced by National Cabinet today is funding for information sharing between the family courts and state authorities, state welfare, child welfare departments, state police to make sure that we're doing everything we can in terms of information sharing to keep women and children safe. Another part of this package, today is again a cooperative partnership between the Commonwealth and the States with the Domestic Violence Threat Assessment Centres. Obviously, that needs to be a partnership because it's something that state police are going to be involved in and there's agreement been reached on that today. There are a whole range of measures. That's the point, I suppose, Matt, of the National Partnership Agreement on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence responses. We know that the states and territories do need to cooperate with the Commonwealth, and it's a really good result of this second National Cabinet devoted to these matters, to see not only a whole lot of new, specific measures, including some trials that have been announced that are directed at this problem, but also that the First Ministers have taken the opportunity to reach in-principle agreement on the new National Access to Justice Agreement which is going to start on the 1st of July 2025. I couldn't be more pleased, Matt, that with this really substantial increase in funding. It's what the sector's been calling for for years. The sector's now got a very substantial increase in funding and certainty of funding going forward. It puts the whole of the legal assistance sector on a new footing and I'm very pleased that our government's been able to bring this about.

DORAN: Mark Dreyfus, we're out of time. Thanks for joining us.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Thanks very much, Matt.

[ENDS]