By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
A NEW Narre Warren legal service specialising in family violence incidents will have no choice but to close its doors if the Federal Government follows through on its planned budget cuts, a leading solicitor from the group says.
The new Narre Warren office of the Casey Cardinia Community Legal Service, officially opened in Victor Crescent in March but operating since last year, is in jeopardy of closing down after the Commonwealth Government announced plans to cease funding previously guaranteed to the service through a four-year agreement which started last year.
Under the agreement the service was promised funding until 2017, currently used towards the operating cost of its Narre Warren office, but which now looks set to stop as of 30 June 2015.
It comes as this month’s Federal Budget also foreshadowed a further $6 million in cuts from community legal services.
Casey Cardinia Community Legal Service Principal Solicitor Vera Hardiman said the closure of the Narre Warren office would significantly reduce the number of people the service could help locally.
“With the growing population and the incredible local level of need, we need to expand, rather than shrink,” she said.
“Our centre faces the closure of its new Narre Warren branch office, which means a cut in services to local residents.
“Without the office, we would have to return to renting a room from a local agency for one or two days per week, to see clients in the Narre Warren area. This would significantly reduce the number of people we could help locally.”
Ms Hardiman, who works at the Narre Warren office three days a week, said the new facility had already been able to service a great number of people in the Casey community in a short space of time.
“A lot of people are saying they really love the location that we’re in, in a building where there are other services that also refer their clients to us, disability services,” she said.
La Trobe MP Jason Wood said thegovernment was considering options for future legal assistance arrangements from 1 July 2015 that will be in line with the findings of the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into access to justice arrangements and the recent Review of the National Partnerships Agreement (NPA).
“As part of the budget announced this month, $15m of funding was withdrawn, but it needs to be understood that this was supplementary funding,” he said.
“This was never part of the majorfunding provided to legal aid commissions under the NPA and would have expired at the end of the financial year in any event.”
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