The barbecue was organised by Legal Aid NSW in conjunction with Centrelink, NSW Housing, the Australian Tax Office and the one stop government shop currently set up in Lovell Street with members from Young’s Rotary Club contributing to the event by attending to the hotplate

Representatives from all those organisations were present to help ex-workers with their enquiries.

Project manager of the one stop shop, Jane Beaumont, said there has been a lot of interest coming in to the shop.

“We’ve had people coming in worried about their rental concerns and housing, and everyone’s been very busy,” Ms Beaumont said.

“We have had about 15 people per day coming through our office in Lovell Street, we’ve seen about 50 people so far.

“I think Legal Aid have shown a fair bit of initiative to get this day organised, it is probably a little more friendly than an office situation.

Julie Maron was the organiser and is a solicitor with Legal Aid, she was very pleased with the turn-out on the day.

“We wanted to get everyone to come down here today so we could let them know just what services are available,” Ms Maron said.

“We wanted them to know that Legal Aid can give them assistance now, in the early stages, with their rent, with their mortgages, with their credit cards, we can help now if they come and see us so that it doesn’t turn into a big problem down the track.

“What we’re hoping to avoid with people coming to see us now is mortgage foreclosures, evictions and people being sued in the courts for unpaid credit cards – if people come and see us now we can help them get some extra time to pay those financial commitments so they are not going to end up in court later.

“Everybody’s been really positive today, we’ve made some appointments for people to come and see us at the shopfront next week and that is a positive thing,” said Ms Maron.