As an accredited specialist community legal centre that provides free assistance to older people in NSW, Seniors Rights Service is proud to endorse The Save community legal centres: End the funding crisis campaign.
Seniors Rights Service is a community legal centre and, without funding certainty, older people in NSW will be vulnerable and unsupported.
The 2024 Federal Budget failed to provide the urgent funding boost and long-term funding security the community legal sector desperately needs. With less than a year’s guaranteed funding left, community legal centres are in the most uncertain position we have faced in a decade.
This is why Seniors Rights Service is endorsing the Save community legal centres: End the funding crisis campaign which launches today with an event at Parliament House in Canberra. Seniors Rights Service is proud to endorse this campaign and join in this National Day of Action.
The costs to our communities of the chronic underfunding of community legal centres include:
- More people in prisons and hospitals
- Women and children stuck in dangerous situations for longer
- People losing their homes and becoming homeless
- Households and individuals overwhelmed by debt and financial problems
- Families stuck in conflict over custody, child support and family law issues
- Asylum seekers facing exploitation due to their visa status.
Save community legal centres: End the funding crisis calls on governments to step up and provide fair funding to community legal centres:
- $35 million this year to address the workforce crisis.
- At least $270 million per year for community legal centres from 1 July 2025, committed by December 2024.
- $95 million for frontline domestic and family violence work.
