Critical funding gaps to meet legal needs in South West Sydney (SWS)

The whole sector has been calling on the Federal and State Governments to urgently provide funding security to ensure we can continue providing vital legal services to those in need. 

CLC’s funding is uncertain because the State Government has been completely silent about what they will contribute and although the Federal Government has recently committed funding, unfortunately CLC’s have not been individually allocated a share of that funding yet.  

The lack of clarity makes it impossible for CLC’s to plan beyond June 2025. To put it in context, we (JSCLC) get half of our funding from the State and half from the Federal Government. The Attorney General, Hon. Michael Daley, has reassured us we will get our base funding in a recent letter; however, our base funding only makes up 25% of our budget. This means we are uncertain about 75% of our budget. 

The challenge for JSCLC is that we are already chronically underfunded as the only CLC with a focus in Fairfield, Canterbury Bankstown and Liverpool. Through Government funding we have only six lawyers plus management to serve Local Government Areas (LGAs) in SWS with the highest needs, as demonstrated by the following data:  

• population: 14.5% of the NSW population  
• disadvantage: amongst the highest socio-economic disadvantage according to SEIFA
• legal need: ranked 1st, 3rd and 4th in Metropolitan NSW as having the greatest need for legal assistance (NLAS ranking by Law and Justice Foundation)
• households classified as non-English speaking: Canterbury Bankstown: 59.1%; Fairfield: 69.7%; Liverpool 53.8% 
• legal demand: we are only able to take on 1 in 2 clients referred to us for legal assistance and we know there are many more people who need our assistance.

There is a significant and growing gap in providing wrap around and targeted services to victim-survivors and migrants living in SWS, who often require intensive and face to face services. 

JSCLC has met with the Hon. Jodie Harrison MP, Jihad Dib, David Saliba and Dai Lee and discussed the urgent need for funding clarity, for increased funding across the CLC sector and the unique needs of the SWS community. We thank them for their advocacy. We have reached out for a meeting with the Attorney General, the Hon. Michael Daley MP and hope to meet with him in the new year. 

CLC’s exist to serve the most vulnerable people in the community and ensure they have access to justice. We need people to write to their local MPs and advocate for the CLC in their electorate. With only six months to go it has now become urgent for us all to advocate strongly for the continuation of CLC’s vital work.  Also if you are able, we invite you to donate to the vital work of JSCLC. 

Sources:

• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
• SEIFA Index of Disadvantage (SEIFA)
• Need for Legal Assistance (NLAS) rankings