Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Attorney-General (Senator Brandis) to a question without notice asked by Senator Peris today relating to the National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services Program.

This is an extremely serious issue and there is just no way this government can claim that cuts to legal aid and cuts to family violence programs will not have a direct impact on frontline services. The simple fact is that they are and they will. In August, the Community Affairs References Committee was in the Northern Territory for our inquiry into grandparent carers. While we were there, NAAJA, the very organisation that the Attorney-General said that he had visited, told us of the direct impact that the reduction in funds will have on their services. They will lose that funding and they will lose those offices that work on supporting people that have been affected by violence. They told us directly that they will no longer be able to offer the sorts of support services they have been offering to grandparent carers—those who, for a variety of reasons, have taken the responsibility to look after their grandchildren. And in fact no other organisation in the Northern Territory will be able to provide the sorts of supports, services, legal advice and legal representation that they have been providing. They provided evidence to us—it is all on the public record; it is in Hansardthat there are very limited other sources of funds available for that form of support.

I have also had representations from family legal centres in Western Australia that the cutting of these funds will have a direct impact on the ability to provide services to Aboriginal people that have been affected by family violence and need that sort of support. This government is using the excuse of the budget to directly cut funding to Aboriginal support services. They cannot run and hide from that. They cannot claim that it is not impacting on family law services. They say that they have to make priorities. What is more important than protecting families, women and their children from violence? I would say they have got their priorities completely twisted, as we were talking about yesterday, if they think that is an area where they need to cut funds.

This government is either not telling the truth or simply do not understand the impact their cuts are having to those programs. They are directly impacting people and services on the ground. This is from a Prime Minister who says he is the Prime Minister for Aboriginal affairs. I would like to know what exactly he thinks that means. In my book it does not mean cutting funds to some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of our community. They should be ashamed of themselves. They should be ashamed to come in here and try and defend the policies that are indefensible. It is simply not defensible to say, 'We are cutting these funds and it is having no direct impact on frontline services.' That is clearly not true.

I do not know what the Attorney-General was doing when he was up in the Northern Territory, but he clearly either did not listen or did not ask the questions that needed to be asked about the support services that are being cut and that are required by vulnerable people in the Northern Territory. In the Territory we are seeing an escalation in the number of children that are being taken into out-of-home care. Instead of cutting funds, we actually need to invest more funds into support services for the most vulnerable members of our community—for the women and children who are affected by violence and who need support to get out of those circumstances and to get better outcomes for the children. That ties into the government's cuts in other areas of Aboriginal funding.

When I was out on the road travelling with a committee, an issue that was raised very strongly in the Kimberley in Western Australia was the concern communities had about the impacts of funding cuts on the delivery of services. Some of them have been given an extension of six months and some 12 months. They do not know whether those services are going to continue. Yesterday Senator Sterle was talking about a family and early childhood centre. I also visited that centre when I was in Fitzroy Crossing not long ago. They are desperately concerned about the future of that centre. This government has no shame in the way it has cut services and then claims it has not. It is outrageous. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.