News and Events

RLC CEO Jo Shulman speaks to Australasian Lawyer about RLC's new health justice partnership with Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

Our solicitors Will Dwyer (Credit & Debt) and Linda Tucker (Employment & Discrimination) talked to Hannah Pett on FBI's Backchat about what the pending federal govt cuts to Community Legal Centres will mean to our clients.

The former Labor government ignored union advice when restructuring the training industry, a parliamentary inquiry has heard. Mr Carr said closing legal loopholes in the training sector is like trying to keep up with international tax avoidance. Photo: Daniel Morris: www.danielxmorris.com

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.

Discussion about the proposed Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination legislation has been dominated by a debate on religious organisation exemptions and freedom of speech. There has been public outcry over religious organisations being exempt from the legislation and the ramifications for service provision to some of the most vulnerable people in Australia.

In the year of its 20th anniversary, the Federal Disability Discrimination Act is under scrutiny thanks to a 78-year old woman taking on an airline policy of not flying more than two people in wheelchairs on the same plane.

The veteran disability rights campaigner, Sheila King, 78, is undaunted by the barrage of hateful comments that followed her unsuccessful court action against Jetstar for its ''two wheelchair'' policy.

This week David and Goliath have been playing it out in the Federal Court of Australia.