Leading NT barrister says community legal sector collapsing, as crossbench calls for urgent funding injection

  • 📰 abcnews
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 48 sec. here
  • 8 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 44%
  • Publisher: 83%

Community Legal Services News

Lidia Thorpe,Nt Legal Service,Indigenous Legal Service

A Darwin barrister has raised the alarm on the NT's community legal sector, saying it is 'collapsing', and will only get worse if a nation-wide funding shortfall for community legal centres isn't filled.

Twenty-eight federal crossbenchers have written to the country's top law officers urging an additional $174 million in funding to community legal centres.

John Lawrence SC has worked in the Northern Territory as a lawyer for more than 30 years, and said the community legal sector — which provides advice to women fleeing domestic violence, and other vulnerable groups — was so under threat right now that some were not receiving legal advice they're entitled to.

"We don't know who the lawyer is, we don't know when the court case is, we have the prisons overflowing.

In May Dr Warren Mundy's independent Review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership found current funding levels insufficient to meet Australia's legal needs, and recommended an additional $215.3 million in urgent top-up funding for this financial year. The independent senator said it would be Indigenous people across the country that would be left worse off by the funding deficit, saying it would leave them vulnerable to 'violence, child removal and further criminalisation'.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 5. in LAW

Law Law Latest News, Law Law Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Keith Kerinauia found guilty of murder of Darwin bottle shop worker Declan LavertyA jury has found Keith Kerinauia guilty of the murder of Darwin bottle shop worker Declan Laverty, following an eight-day trial in the NT Supreme Court.
Source: abcnews - 🏆 5. / 83 Read more »