They provide legal advice and traditional casework for free, primarily funded by federal, state and local government.
There are as of 2020[update] eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS), with similar characteristics to CLCs.
[2] However, soon after the Fraser government came to power in December 1975, some members of the wider legal profession had begun to acknowledge the importance of CLCs in improving the public's access to the law.
Community Legal Centres Australia is the umbrella organisation for eight state and territory CLC associations.
[4] They may also undertake test case litigation, critique police powers and behaviours, and monitor prisons systems and conditions.
[8] Community legal centres are partly funded by a complex and variable mix of state and federal government monies, offered both directly (such as through grants) and indirectly.
However, they rely heavily upon the efforts and support of extensive volunteer networks, both lawyers and non-lawyers, to staff them without payment, without whom they would not survive.
The announcement included plans for a single national mechanism to deliver legal assistance funding from 1 July 2020.
[50] It has also operated the state's Custody Notification Service informally for some time, but the change in law to make it compulsory for SAPOL to notify ALRM only took effect on 2 July 2020, after the Black Lives Matter protests had highlighted the issue of Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
[64] They also advocate for law and policy changes, such as those which have a bearing upon the high rate of Indigenous incarceration in Australian prisons.
[67] NATSILS (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services) is the peak body,[68] as of 2020[update] representing:[69] ATSILS and other stakeholders were alarmed by the announcement of the new single national mechanism for funding all legal services, to take effect from July 2020.
[68][64] The National Family Violence Prevention and Legal Services Forum (National FVPLS Forum), established in May 2012, as of September 2020[update] represents thirteen Family Violence Prevention Legal Service (FVPLS) member organisations.
Information and services including telephone advice are often free of charge, but there is a means test for eligibility for legal representation.