By Karen Fletcher
Two reports on released recently in South Australia and Victoria raise a number of proposals of great concern to the community legal centre movement.
"Community Legal Centres in South Australia: A Fabric for the Future" (May 1998) and "Review of Victorian Community Legal Centre Funding Program" (July 1998) are the result of collaboration between the federal and state attorneys general. They propose sweeping changes.
In Queensland, an examination of community legal centres (CLCs) has been initiated by the commonwealth attorney general. The Legal Aid Commission has begun recruiting members of the committee which will undertake the project.
The SA and Victorian documents contain proposals such as:
- amalgamation and relocation of many CLCs to distribute resources more evenly;
- development of a "framework of standardised community legal services including description of outputs and outcomes";
- means and assets testing for CLC clients and the development of a "common assessment tool" for CLCs across Australia;
- an emphasis on in-house staff providing "direct client services" in accordance with commonwealth-prescribed "service standards", "at levels approved by funding agencies, as a condition of funding";
- expanded use of students and other volunteers to provide legal advice and casework services;
- law reform work to be carried out only by volunteers and management committee members, not paid staff;
- contracting-out of administrative support, and location of administrative support workers in low-rent offices in outlying suburbs; and
- a "seamless" referral relationship between CLCs and legal aid commissions.
The recommendations raise fundamental issues about CLCs as independent, community-based and community-managed organisations.
In the wake of its massive cuts to legal aid, the federal government appears to expect CLCs to provide the services once the responsibility of legal aid commissions. The use of volunteers means that CLCs' "costs per client" are considerably lower.
CLCs are not "little legal aid offices" and cannot substitute for adequate federal legal aid funding.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the reviews has been the conscious exclusion of the state bodies that represent CLCs. Although people associated with CLCs have been invited to participate, their status has been as individual "nominees", not as representatives of CLCs.
In SA and Victoria, the CLC nominees have been bound by confidentiality agreements not to discuss the process with their constituents. Federal and state government representatives and legal aid commission representatives have not been subject to this restriction.
The first CLCs emerged in the early 1970s, when volunteer lawyers and community groups committed to equitable access to justice organised themselves. State and federal governments were persuaded to provide some funding.
Presently, the Commonwealth CLC Program provides sustenance for a large number of centres. There has also been a large contribution from some state governments; other state governments' assistance merely supplements the commonwealth program.
Government funding obliges CLCs to account for the use of the money, and in the last 10 years mechanisms have been developed for this purpose. Since the election of the federal Coalition government, a dangerous situation is developing in which "accountability" borders on "control".
It is crucial that CLCs quickly reassert the importance of community management. A vibrant and healthy community sector is needed to complement and challenge both the private and government sectors. CLCs are not driven by the profit motive and are independent of the state.
Community organisations are not government departments or instrumentalities and cannot be treated as such. The harsh application of bureaucratic controls and standards to CLCs runs a real risk of killing the community ethic and volunteers' commitment to social justice.
For further information or copies of the documents referred to, phone Karen Fletcher at Queensland Prisoners Legal Service on (O7) 3846 3384.