Federal Budget 2024
Community Legal Centres Australia budget response 2024-25
15 May 2024
Last night’s budget focussed on delivering cost-of-living relief via the stage 3 tax cuts and energy bill relief for every household across the country. Disappointingly, it included very little in the way of direct support for the people doing it toughest in our communities, including people who rely on social security payments and women and children at risk of domestic and family violence. It also delivers very little for frontline community services, including community-based legal assistance services.
Media release: Commonwealth’s failure to adequately invest in community legal centres sends sector a message to plan for winding down services
14 May 2024
Community Legal Centres Australia has described the Federal Government’s failure to make a sufficient investment in community legal centres for 2024-25, or to commit to ongoing legal assistance funding via the forward estimates, as a message to community legal centres that they should plan for winding down services.
2024–25 Pre-budget submission
January 2024
Funding for legal assistance is an investment in people and communities: our services keep people in jobs and homes, and out of debt, hospitals, courts, and prisons. And yet, the legal assistance sector in Australia is woefully underfunded, which hurts people and communities, and costs governments.
Community-based legal assistance providers face unique greater funding risks, including inflationary pressures, underfunding and a lack of long-term funding security. Our unique service model and contribution to individual and community wellbeing are at risk.
We recommend the Commonwealth Government invests significant additional funding for legal assistance services in the May 2024-25 Federal Budget. We need urgent additional funding in 2024-25 and over the forward estimates, to enable legal assistance providers to keep delivering vital support to the community
You can read previous budget statements below:
