$51 million to spend in 5 years by all Domestic Violence Units in Australia
The federal government has committed to investing $400 million per year in the whole legal assistance sector over five years from 1 July 2020, through the new National Legal Assistance Partnership (NLAP) agreement between the Commonwealth and the states and territories.
The agreement also states that the Commonwealth’s financial contributions to baseline funding for Legal Aid Commissions include $8.6 million over five years for the delivery of legal assistance services related to family law and/or family violence-related matters.
The National Strategic Framework for Information Sharing between the Family Law and Family Violence and Child Protection Systems will improve family safety outcomes in the family courts and through the state and territory family violence and child protection systems, by ensuring decision-makers have prompt and timely access to all relevant family violence information. The Government is providing $29.0 million over four years for this new initiative
When we look into the specific programs to assist victims and survivors of domestic violence, the NLAP includes an estimated $51 million contribution for the Domestic Violence Units / Health Justice Partnerships in the whole country, for five years - an average of 10 million per year:
- 7.5 million for New South Wales
- 8.1 million for Victoria
- 12.2 million for Queensland
- 7.9 million for Western Australia
- 5.3 million for South Australia
- 2.7 million for Tasmania
- 2.4 million for the Australian Capital Territory
- 5.3 million for the Northern Territory
Investment - National Legal Assistance Partnership 2020-25 Source: SBS, with 2020-25 National Legal Assistance Partnership data
The NLAP has also assigned a baseline of resources for Family Law and/or Family of 77.6 million dollars, an average of 15.5 million per year for all of Australia. New South Wales will receive a total of 20.6; Victoria 18.4; Queensland 14.2; Western Australia 10.1; South Australia 7.2; Tasmania 2.8; the Australian Capital Territory 1.7; and 2.7 for the Northern Territory.
Over the next four years, the 2021 Women's Budget Statement assigns $416.2 million to support women and families experiencing family and domestic violence through a number of measures, beyond the resources allocated to the National Legal Assistance Partnership, as detailed above.
National Legal Assistance Partnership 2020-25 Source: SBS, with 2020-25 National Legal Assistance Partnership data
The new budget also provides:
- $85.0 million over three years from 2022-23 in additional funding for enhanced social supports under the Family Advocacy and Support Services
- $101.4 million over four years from 2021-22 to increase access to Children’s Contact Services
- $60.8 million over four years from 2021-22 to enable the family courts to implement a new approach to Family Law Case management.
- $129.0 million over four years from 2021-22 for increased legal assistance funding, directed to women’s legal centres, to enable these providers to respond to increasing demand for domestic violence assistance.
- $4.7 million over two years to strengthen criminal justice responses to sexual assault, sexual harassment and coercive control.
- $6.3 million in 2021-22 will be provided to facilitate increased justice for victims of sexual assault.
The Family Court of Australia has welcomed the $100 million of additional resources over the next four years, which will allow reforms and the appointment of 10 more judges. This budget allocation is expected to reduce family court proceeding delays and improve safety outcomes for litigants.
But the budget increase won't guarantee domestic violence survivors' access to legal representation, a growing demand that’s affecting thousands of women and children in Australia.
Their 2021-22 Pre-Budget Submission to the Attorney-General Department, reads that the legal assistance sector was seriously underfunded prior to the pandemic which increased the demand for funding and resourcing.
Dr Jacoba Brasch, president of the Law Council, told SBS that the primary problem faced by the legal assistance sector is that funding from a succession of governments has failed to keep pace with population growth and inflation.
Funding from a succession of governments has failed to keep pace with population growth and inflation.
She says the strain on the legal assistance sector to address unmet legal needs with restricted funding is not new. It was also noted in the 2018 Review of the National Partnership Agreement on Legal Assistance Services and by the 2014 Productivity Commission’s Access to Justice Arrangements report.
The 2014 commission recommended to better align the 'Means Test’ used by legal aid commissions with other measures of disadvantage, in order to increase the number of individuals who can access legal representation grants.
In 2018, the Law Council’s Justice Project also noted that since 1997, the Commonwealth has dramatically reduced its spending on legal aid funding from around 55 per cent of the contribution at that time, to only 33 per cent in 2017-18.
The Law Council has repeatedly called for the Commonwealth’s share of Legal Aid Commission funding to return to at least 50 per cent of their budget, allowing for a more equitable split with the states and territories.
Beyond resources, experts ask for better data to assess legal aid needs
The Law Council has long called for a stronger commitment to improving data and evidence that allows the identification of the Australian community’s legal needs.
Its president, Dr Jacoba Brasch QC, says the proper resourcing of the family court system is a critical issue requiring urgent attention and that funding for legal assistance services must identify legal need in the community, a baseline level of services before arriving at an appropriate funding model.
For the Law Council, this approach would be more conducive to establishing a framework for the Commonwealth, states and territories to agree on national objectives, such as a minimum proportion of the population who should be eligible for free legal assistance.
The Law Council expects the data collected through the implementation of the National Legal Assistance Partnership (NLAP) will help decision-makers to make evidence-based policy and funding allocations that reflect the Australian community’s legal needs.
The 2018 Final Report of the Justice Project of the Law Council of Australia addresses the challenges faced by migrants and identifies the need to build legal literacy skills and their general knowledge of the Australian system of law and government, in a language they understand. It also identifies the need for more evidence to capture the cultural, linguistic and gender diversity of recent arrivals in the justice system as well as their outcomes.
The 2014 Access to Justice Arrangements Inquiry report of the Productivity Commission concluded that governments have a role in assisting disadvantaged Australians, not only as a duty of care of the most disadvantaged sectors of the community but because 'numerous studies show that efficient government-funded legal assistance services generate net benefits to the community'.
The Productivity Commission has identified one of the most affected groups is 'missing middle', between those on high incomes and the ones on lower incomes who are more likely to be covered by publicly funded assistance schemes.
Experts agree that that the gap in services, particularly for migrant women facing situations of domestic violence, won’t be addressed until more resources are assigned to meet the needs of disadvantaged Australians.
United Nation’s global study on Legal Aid identifies Australia’s challenges in accessing legal aid, including 'resourcing constraints and strict accessibility tests to access legal aid for civil/family law'.
Learn more about domestic violence in Australia in SBS’s documentary series See What You Made Me Do.
Stream it for free on SBS On Demand with subtitles in Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Korean, Hindi and Punjabi.
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