It is simply wrong for Lara Giddings to say the Tasmanian Government has ‘defunded’ the Tasmanian Women’s Legal Service.
It is the Liberals in Government who have provided record State funding to help Tasmanians in need navigate the justice system.
To be clear, the Women’s Legal Service receives $628,250 in funding from the Tasmanian Government per year, including $500,000 per year under Tasmania’s Action Plan for Family and Sexual Violence 2019-2022 (the Action Plan). This is in addition to Commonwealth funding of over $1 million this financial year under the National Legal Assistance Partnership (NLAP).
Further to this, at the May election we also committed additional funding to the legal assistance sector of $2.2 million per year, for four years, which is on top of the funding already committed under the NLAP and the Action Plan.
This new funding will allow the sector to continue to provide free or low-cost legal services to Tasmanians who need it, and the Department of Justice is currently working through the allocation to each community legal service, which includes the Women’s Legal Service.
Ms Giddings may be deeply upset and embarrassed at her party’s ongoing war, but that is not an excuse to make false statements, without checking the facts.