The opening plenary session of the November 2019 Quarterlies posed the question “Do we need to be different in 2022?” to get the sector’s thinking caps on well ahead of tendering for State and Commonwealth funding in 2022. Introduced and facilitated by outgoing Community Legal Centres NSW Chair Katrina Ironside, the plenary featured three compelling visions for the future of the community legal sector posed by three external allies of the sector: Professor Simon Rice, Director of Professional and Community Engagement at the University of Sydney, Anne Cregan, Partner at Gilbert + Tobin, and Geoff Mulherin, Director of the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW.
Mid North Coast Community Legal Centre is excited to have opened the doors to its second office, located in Coffs Harbour, with additional State funding. Coffs Harbour, Nambucca and Bellingen local government areas were identified by the Cameron Review in 2018 as a gap in community legal centre services.
The University of Newcastle Legal Centre recently launched the Older Persons’ Legal Clinic as a response to the many elder law issues that arise. The service offers free legal advice and assistance to people aged 60 years and over, to people of indigenous descent aged 50 years and over, their families and carers.
Inner City Legal Centre, Kingsford Legal Centre, Marrickville Legal Centre, and Redfern Legal Centre have together established a new statewide service to address the employment exploitation of migrant workers.