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.

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.

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.

On 30 July 2013 the Auditor-General released his report Making the Best Use of Public Housing.

Spare Bedroom Tax refers to a Housing New South Wales policy that commenced in September 2013. This policy is aimed at addressing under-occupancy in public housing properties.

In September 2013, Housing NSW sent out notices to public housing tenants to tell them that their rent is being increased. The increases are up to $300 per week. The increases apply only to tenants who pay market rent.

RLC's Joanna Shulman and Natalie Bradshaw spoke with 7.30 NSW's Quentin Dempster on Friday, 27 September 2013 about Housing NSW properties in a bad state of disrepair. Watch the full report here.