Legal centre cash crisis

A community legal centre in Rockingham is facing an uncertain future after Federal Government funding cuts cast a cloud over its short-term operations.

The Southern Communities Advocacy Legal Education Service, known as SCALES, is facing more than $160,000 in cuts next financial year.

The service, which helps the most vulnerable people of Rockingham and Kwinana in issues including family law, homelessness and domestic violence, also hosts the Murdoch University Law Clinic.

SCALES managing director Gai Walker said the cuts would have a big impact.

“Ultimately we give advice to a lot of people but our case work is focused on the ones who are most vulnerable,” she said. “

“We are still trying to work out the full extent of the cuts but it’s going to im-pact on us, whether it is the number of staff we have or whether we will have to make people part-time.

“We’ve got amazing people here who are highly experienced and we don’t want to lose them.”

The service, which already has to turn down between 1500 and 1600 people per year because of high demand, will see even more people turned away after the looming cuts, according to Ms Walker.

“We won’t be able to see as many clients,” she said.

“However, there’s not going to be a slowing down in the number of people coming in asking for help. It’s a great concern to everyone here and across the sector.”

Federal Member for Brand Madeleine King said the cuts were unacceptable considering the fact 40 per cent of the clients at SCALES suffered domestic violence as part of their problems.

A spokesperson for the Attorney-General’s Department said Commonwealth funding for SCALES had increased $5562 between the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years.