Government continuing to advocate for ongoing federal legal assistance funding

The Tasmanian Government has signed the National Partnership Agreement on Legal Assistance Services to ensure ongoing Commonwealth funding for the Legal Aid Commission of Tasmania and a number of Community Legal Centres across the state.

While we have signed the agreement to ensure ongoing funding from July 1, we will continue to advocate for the Commonwealth Government to restore funding to the LACT and Community Legal Centres to the previous levels.

To ensure CLCs and the LACT didn’t need to reduce resources due to the lower amount of Commonwealth funding offered in this National Partnership Agreement, the Hodgman Liberal Government has made a commitment to ensure funding for these organisations is maintained at the existing level for this financial year.

However we continue to work constructively with the Commonwealth to see the restoration of the previous level of funding and the continuation their ongoing funding responsibilities for these important legal assistance organisations.

The Hodgman Liberal Government recognises and values the important role that legal assistance organisations play in our community, which is why we have stepped in to ensure that they won’t lose staff or resources due to the Federal Budget.
Vanessa Goodwin, Attorney-General