By close of business on Thursday, the Australian Christian Lobby had raised over $2 million for Israel Folau's legal fighting fund. Many people are expressing views about whether Folau's published words ought to have affected his employment. It's an important discussion to have.
However, my mind is distracted by another question: about the priorities of the many practising Christians supporting the fundraiser, and whether they have thought about the other good works this money could go to. As a former community lawyer, I can think of many ways $2 million might be spent to help those facing a battle with the law.
There are around 50 Community Legal Centres (CLCs), including Aboriginal Legal Services, in Victoria, and over 180 nationally. Many receive only enough core funding for two or three full-time staff. With that, these tiny organisations help thousands of people in legal crisis (often precipitated by a financial, relationship or health crisis — or all of those) every year.
CLCs provide support to keep people in safe homes, help them navigate the mental health system, offer financial counselling, support them in jobs, protect them from abuse, and stop scammers exploiting the vulnerable. Community lawyers can be found in hospitals, drop-in centres, boarding houses and local parks, speaking to people who need help. I know, because I have done all these things. It was the hardest and most rewarding work I have done.
They do all this by quietly delivering far more than their funding allows — truly making loaves and fishes for the masses. The value of the pro bono work that they offer is worth many millions of dollars per year. CLCs often partner with universities to train students, who help clients with simple matters. They also augment their core funding with grant money, used to pilot new programs with an early intervention approach, diverting people away from crisis, and saving the justice and welfare systems countless hours and dollars.
Centres also provide ears on the ground for government. Often a CLC will be the first to learn about issues affecting disadvantaged groups which require regulatory responses. The legal assistance sector has driven reform in areas like family violence, mental health and disability advocacy, prison conditions and police accountability, providing a wider benefit beyond their clients and into the future.
The ability to cross over between legal practice, policy and advocacy functions is one of their unique features, stemming from their social justice origins and providing benefits for the whole community.
"Folau might do well to step out on the streets with a community lawyer, remember his gospels, and see how much good this money could do."
A 2006 report from the University of Technology Sydney found that 'the quantitative value of the CLC services for the clients involved was in the order of one hundred times far greater than the amount that CLC services are funded per client'. This figure excluded the broader impact of the educational and law reform work, but if this were included 'the total economic value of CLCs is shown to be very high indeed'. In other words, if you donated $1 million to community legal centres, you would see $100 million in benefits to the community.
If I were still working in CLCs, and someone offered me $1 million, I could come up with ideas very quickly for how to spend it. It could fund a full-time lawyer and social worker helping women in prison for five years. It could fund a full-time community support worker at an Aboriginal Legal Service for at least ten years. Or a statewide program for teens in regional residential care, with three staff and an army of volunteers, for four years. Or legal advice and disability advocacy for NDIS clients for five years. The list goes on.
So I ask those of faith: when you give money, perhaps first imagine the good you can do. I am a lapsed Christian, but I learned the fundamentals of the faith from my grandparents and teachers, and I took them to heart: love one another as you are loved, and remember that all people are equal and valuable, made 'in the image of God.' That includes the poor, the substance-dependent, and those who are diverse in race, culture, gender and sexuality. Everyone.
Armed with those values, I went out into the world, law degree in hand, and lived by them as a community lawyer.
When I read about $2 million being raised so a a multimillionaire rugby star can defend his right to post something on social media, I am reminded of another lesson I learned as a child: that it is harder for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Folau might do well to step out on the streets with a community lawyer, remember his gospels, and see how much good this money could do. And perhaps he can go fund himself on this one.
Chelsea Candy is a sessional lecturer at the RMIT School of Business and Law, and worked and volunteered in community legal centres as a lawyer from 2008 to 2017.
Main image: Israel Folau departs his conciliation meeting with Rugby Australia at the Fair Work Commission in Sydney on 28 June 2019 in Sydney. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)