Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) (14:38): With respect, Senator Thorpe, I'm not sure those figures that you're quoting are correct. I've said previously that our government—and, in particular, the Attorney-General, as someone who has spent a lot of his life working with community legal centres—is a very strong supporter of the community legal sector and has actually delivered far more funding than the figures you've quoted have referred to. The Prime Minister's significant announcement following National Cabinet last week demonstrates our government's commitment to access to justice. First ministers have signed a heads of agreement for a new National Access to Justice Partnership and the new $3.9 billion agreement includes an $800 million increase on current funding levels for the legal assistance sector plus a commitment to ongoing funding. Every part of the sector will benefit from this $800 million boost, which will be shared between community legal centres, women's legal services, legal aid commissions, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services, and family violence prevention legal services. This is the biggest single Commonwealth investment in legal assistance ever and I congratulate the Attorney-General for his advocacy on this within government and, of course, congratulate the other ministers involved who've made this assistance happen. The PRESIDENT: Minister Watt, please resume your seat. Senator Thorpe? Senator Thorpe: I have a point of order. It's not a congratulatory question for you to talk about the Attorney-General— The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, that is a debating point. Please resume your seat. Minister Watt, please continue. Senator WATT: The package the government has delivered will provide pay parity for the community legal sector so that lawyers and other workers in CLCs, ATSILSs, women's legal services and family violence prevention and legal services, who are mostly women, will no longer have to accept being paid up to 30 per cent less than their counterparts in legal aid commissions. This investment will mean that they can help more Australians and help more women safely leave and recover from violent relationships. By providing ongoing funding to the sector, we're helping to end the destructive uncertainty created by the former government, which left a decade of chronic underfunding in the legal assistance sector and a funding cliff. (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, first supplementary?