News and Events

May 2015 - Australasian Lawyer Samantha Woodhill The 2014 Productivity Commission inquiry into access to justice recommended an additional $200m in funding for community legal centres, but the latest federal budget will force centres to endure further funding cuts.

'One of the nation's busiest community legal centres is on the verge of cutting half its staff.'

Community legal centres around Australia will no longer have their budgets slashed by $25.5 million over the next two years, federal Attorney General George Brandis announced last week in a reversal of cuts handed down in the 2014 budget.

Struggling single mum Rebecca Warfield saved money on cheap haircuts at a hairdressing college in Sydney.

Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers are targeting vulnerable and disadvantaged people with unscrupulous marketing practices by enrolling students into courses they cannot possibly complete or afford.

Not all renters are treated equally under NSW tenancy laws. There are many tenants in fairly conventional renting situations who would be surprised to learn that NSW state tenancy laws don’t apply to them.

Employees should be wary of potential recriminations for after-hours social media misconduct, warned Kathryn Dent, an employment and industrial law specialist, in a recent interview with Australasian Lawyer.

The Legal Affairs Committee of the NSW Parliament Legislative Assembly released its Report on the inquiry into Debt Recovery in NSW in November 2014.

On 8th September, the NSW Parliament’s Select Committee on Social, Public and Affordable Housing tabled its final report after a wide-reaching inquiry. A number of submissions made by RLC during the inquiry were drawn upon in the final report.

The RLC Credit & Debt service regularly assists vulnerable clients dependent on Centrelink income, or otherwise experiencing financial hardship.