Community Legal Centres Face Funding Crisis

See, eg, Productivity Commission of Australia, Access to Justice Arrangements Inquiry Report No 72 (September 2014); Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Reference Committee, Access to Justice (2009); Coumarelos Christine , Legal Australia-Wide Survey: Legal Need in Australia (Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, 2012).

A range of other surveys and tools have been used in an attempt to measure and understand legal need including, eg, NACLC Legal Needs Assessment Toolkit; Indigenous Legal Needs Project; Australian Council of Social Service, Australian Community Sector Survey 2013: National Report, ACOSS Paper 202 (2013).

Productivity Commission of Australia, above n 1, 107 and Finding 2.1.

While a significant number, it is a conservative one, as turnaway data is not yet consistently collected by CLCs and these rates do not take into account the large numbers of people who, for a range of reasons often associated with compounded disadvantage, do not seek legal help.

National Association of Community Legal Centres, Submission to 2016–2017 Federal Budget (February 2016).

See, eg, Productivity Commission of Australia, above n 1; Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Reference Committee, above n 1; Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department, Review of Commonwealth Community Legal Services Program (2008); Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Reference Committee Legal Aid and Access to Justice (2004).

See, eg, Productivity Commission of Australia, above n 1, 735.

Ibid Appendix K, 1054.