MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: State and territory attorneys-general are in Canberra this morning for talks with the Federal Government on a new five-year agreement to fund legal assistance for some of the most vulnerable Australians.
Most states and territories are deeply unhappy with the Commonwealth's funding proposal, saying it will mean serious cuts to legal aid commissions and community legal services.
But two of them aren't complaining: Western Australia and the Northern Territory say they're set to get a net increase in funding.
Peta Donald reports.
PETA DONALD: At Redfern Legal Centre in inner city Sydney, many clients are living on the edge.
JOANNA SHULMAN: We're talking about people who are homeless, people who are Aboriginal, people who are experiencing domestic violence.
PETA DONALD: The CEO, Joanna Shulman, says it's crunch time. Over the last few years the service has steadily lost funding and it's facing a shortfall in the coming financial year that's going to make things difficult.
JOANNA SHULMAN: We will be losing half our general legal team. We'll be losing four practices of law that we won't be able to provide advice in. We'll be turning away 500 clients a year; that's on top of clients already that we can't see.
PETA DONALD: Six state and territory attorneys-general have written to their Federal counterpart, George Brandis, ahead of today's meeting. They say they're concerned about the Commonwealth's proposal for the national partnership agreement on legal assistance services - in particular, the cuts to Commonwealth funding for community legal centres.
After an outcry over funding uncertainty earlier this year, the Federal Government backpedalled on its cuts it had been planning, shoring up funding for another two years. But from mid-2017, funding for the legal centres drops dramatically.
The New South Wales Attorney-General, Gabrielle Upton, says in her state the legal aid budget is being cut by $2.5 million next year. Funding for community legal centres is stable for two years, then is cut by 25 per cent.
GABRIELLE UPTON: This is about getting a fair deal for vulnerable people in New South Wales who should have the best of legal services.
PETA DONALD: She's signed the letter along with attorneys-general from Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, who all say their states will be worse off.
Victorian Attorney-General Martin Pakula:
MARTIN PAKULA: We do not have the resources to just step in and fill a hole left by the Commonwealth.
PETA DONALD: The Northern Territory and Western Australia have not signed the letter. Attorneys-general from WA and the NT say they're set to receive a net increase in funding.
WA's Attorney-General, Michael Mischin, says overall his state has had a 14 per cent increase.
MICHAEL MISCHIN: Which was very, very welcome, given that we'd been disadvantaged over the last several years with the previous partnership agreement and in regard to challenges that we face with the wider spread of remote communities and a very large Indigenous population.
PETA DONALD: The Commonwealth defends the $1.3 billion over four years it set aside in last week's budget for front-line legal services.
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: That's Peta Donald there with that report.
Listen to the show on the ABC website.
