LEGAL practitioners have slammed the State Government’s decision to close the South East Community Legal Centre (SECLC) in July, labelling it “discriminative and short-sighted”.
Attorney-General John Rau announced this week the SECLC will close on July 1 and the South Australian Legal Services Commission will act as the first point of contact for people seeking community legal services.
Local lawyer Thomas Rymill said the new point of contact will be “completely inferior” to the services currently provided locally.
“The ability to have ease of access to legal services in this city is very important and I am completely stunned by the State Government’s decision,” Mr Rymill said.
“They are happy to put a jail down here to house 600 people, but won’t fund a service in this city to look after those people.
“It is discriminative and short-sighted.”
Long-time Mount Gambier solicitor John Williamson said the SECLC was supported by most practices and as a practitioner he was “annoyed” with the decision to close the centre.
“It is going to have quite a severe impact on not only criminal law, but also family law because their services were a great asset for the community,” Mr Williamson said.
“The demands on the legal practices are now going to be even larger without even taking into consideration the expansion of the prison.”
The South Australian Government said the reform of community legal centres in the state was because the additional funding from the Commonwealth Government would not reverse federal cuts to the community legal services sector.
But Member for Barker Tony Pasin refuted that claim, stating the record funding of $55.7m made available earlier this month was to be used on all services across South Australia.
“This Federal Government funding is being delivered through national partnership agreements with states and territories, meaning that the South Australian State Government is responsible for distributing the South Australian share of this funding amongst South Australia’s community legal services sector,” Mr Pasin said.
“It is extremely disappointing that the South Australian Government has chosen to close the community legal centres in the South East and in the Riverland, presumably re-directing their share of the Federal Government funding into Adelaide.”
The State Government said the legal services commission will receive the bulk of the additional funding with $320,000 provided each year to deliver an expanded information, advice and referral service.
“Making the legal services commission the first point of contact for people seeking legal information, advice or assistance will mean that, depending on your circumstances, you can be prioritised for the right service no matter where you live,” Mr Rau said.
Mr Williamson said there was a “strong” argument that a legal services commission should be set up in Mount Gambier.
“I’m not sure if it is due to a lack of resources, but when you ring the legal services commission in Adelaide you can be put on hold for a considerable time,” Mr Williamson said.
“The solution is to set up a legal services commission here.”
