The Turnbull government will unveil the carve-up of a promised $30m for frontline legal assistance and family law services at a domestic violence summit in Brisbane convened by the council of Australian governments.
The government will commit on Friday to allocating $18.5m for a duty lawyer and social services in the family courts, with an additional $6.2m to pilot what the government terms “enhanced models of family dispute resolution for vulnerable families”.
The legal assistance programs currently being piloted under the government’s women’s safety package will be funded for an extra 12 months to the tune of $5m.
An additional $0.3m will go to data analysis in the legal assistance sector.
In a statement issued ahead of the Brisbane summit, the attorney general, George Brandis, said strengthening services in the family law courts for families experiencing violence was “a key priority”.
“Through this measure, legal aid commissions will work alongside specialist domestic violence services to assist families navigate the complexities of moving between state and federal court systems,” Brandis said.
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said 100 women had been killed or were the victims of attempted murder in family and domestic violence-related homicides over the past 12 months, and nearly 1.5m women in Australia had experienced sexual assault since the age of 15.
“Domestic violence hurts us all. It ruins the lives of individuals, destroys families and breaks communities,” Turnbull said. “The violence must stop and we are delivering the leadership, policies and resourcing that is required to keep women and children in Australia safe.”
But Labor will say the proposed investment doesn’t counter the cuts the government has already made to community legal centres, legal assistance for Indigenous Australians, and legal aid.
In a joint statement issued ahead of the summit, Bill Shorten, Tanya Plibersek and Terri Butler said: “It’s not enough to simply say that family violence is a priority – we need to see action and results.
“The Turnbull government needs to recognise its harsh budget cuts are hindering, not helping, the effort to eliminate family violence from our communities.”
“These cuts include $35m from community legal centres, which provide frontline support services to domestic violence victims; $88m from the national partnership agreement on homelessness – ignoring the reality that domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness; cuts to the national family violence prevention legal services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services.”
The Coalition has also cut $35m from community legal centres. The national association of community legal centres has said 160,000 people have been turned away due to funding cuts.
Ahead of Friday’s summit, the Victorian government has also blasted a decision by the federal employment minister, Michaelia Cash, to cancel a regular meeting with her state counterparts. Victoria had intended to lobby the federal government to make domestic violence leave a workplace right.
A coalition of alcohol experts, including doctors and researchers have also accused federal, state and territory governments of failing to properly acknowledge the role of alcohol in family violence.
