When National Cabinet meet today, they must acknowledge gender-based violence as an ongoing priority, backing up any rhetoric with real commitment to delivering the reforms and funding needed to meet the urgent needs of women and their children. 

The Federal Government has shown leadership promising a substantial package, including funding for frontline services. 

It is vital that State and Territory Governments come to the table, meeting any funding requests from the federal government. 

Women must be supported in real terms to leave violent and unsafe relationships, and the funding of frontline and legal services is key to this. Current funding levels for women’s legal services do not come close to meeting urgent need across Australia, with an estimated 52,000 women turned away from specialist women’s legal services each year.  

Women’s legal services across Australia support women to resolve immediate safety needs as well as providing legal advice and representation that can support women’s longer-term recovery from violence. 

To increase services and meet demand, any substantial funding commitment to ending family violence must include: 

• A dedicated funding stream for specialist women’s legal services 

• An urgent funding boost of $28.5 million on top of existing Commonwealth funding levels for specialist women’s legal services, alongside further funding to address the gendered pay gap 

• Double ongoing Commonwealth funding for specialist women’s legal services, totalling $72 million per year 

• Increased contributions to NLAP by all state and territory governments for specialist women’s legal services  

The recent Rapid Review of Prevention Approaches found the provision of legal assistance to victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence is not only an access to justice issue, but a frontline service that can improve safety and reduce risk. 

Expanding the reach and capacity of women’s legal services is pivotal to ending violence against women, ensuring we can continue to support victim-survivors of family violence, expand our services into the future, and to provide preventative support