National Legal Aid Chair Suzan Cox QC believes new domestic violence figures highlight the importance of a strong legal aid service to help those unable to afford private legal representation, especially in family law cases.
“The data shows that underfunded legal aid commissions are confronting high numbers of disintegrating low-income families who are wrestling with complex legal disputes over the care of their children,” Ms Cox said.
Statistics suggest that domestic violence was a factor in 79% of family law cases dealt with by legal aid last year, 6000 of which were in NSW.
Need for Legal Aid
In 2012, the ‘Australia Institute’ released a report titled ‘Justice for All’ which estimates that 1.7 million Australians encounter legal problems each year. The Institute says 490,000 of those people do not receive legal advice due to financial and other reasons.
“In practice, the tight rationing of legal aid means that only the poorest and the richest Australians can ever hope to receive legal representation,” the Report stated. “For those who inhabit the vast middle ground between very poor and very wealthy, the legal system can remain forever inaccessible.”
Currently, a person is only eligible for Legal Aid if they pass a ‘means test’ which takes into account financial factors such as their income, outgoings and assets. Applicants will normally only pass that stringent test if they:
- receive government assistance such as a Disability Pension, Newstart or Youth Allowance,
- are in custody, or
- receive a very low income.
An applicant will normally only satisfy the means test if their net assessable income is $400 or less per week.
There is an additional ‘merits test’ which looks at whether the nature of the case justifies a grant of aid.
Current Funding
At present, Legal Aid NSW receives Commonwealth and State government funding in the amount of $253.4 million each year, of which 27.3%, or $70.3 million, is spent on family law.
Ms Cox says this level is insufficient to accommodate for the increasing demand for legal aid services.
Requested Funding
Cox has commended the Federal Government for providing greater legal assistance to victims through a $15 million in Women’s Safety Package.
At the same time, she points to a Productivity Commission report which says that $120 million needs to be injected into the Commission’s budget “immediately” to accommodate for rising demand. The injection would allow legal aid to soften the existing means test, which has led to more and more people falling into the “justice gap“; where they are ineligible for legal aid but cannot afford private legal representation.
“These low-income domestic violence victims can’t afford lawyers and are frequently in bitter dispute with partners,” she said. “It is vital for these victims to access legal assistance safely and quickly from properly funded service providers with the required depth of legal expertise.”
Over 80 family violence experts and community groups have penned a letter to the Prime Minister criticising the government’s failure to address existing shortfalls in critical areas such as legal aid.
“We are extremely worried that women’s safety is at risk because of inadequate government funding,” the letter says. “Prime Minister Turnbull you’ve declared that domestic violence is a national priority. National priorities must also be budget priorities.”
The letter essentially argues that if the PM is serious about helping domestic violence victims, he should authorise the provision of sufficient resources to help them escape their predicament, and to secure access to children and property.
What do we get for the money ? 100,000,000$$$ (one hundred million plus State and Local Govt funding !) for what ? Men fund the Family Law Court System. Men are partners in Domestic Violence deaths and statistics , which are lower than all other causes of death in Australia.
Let’s look at the numbers since 2008 to 2010. Victim sex
Of the 541 victims killed throughout 2008–09 and 2009–10, 366 were male (68%) and 175 were female (32%; see Table B3).
The overrepresentation of men as victims of homicide has been a consistent finding since data were first captured in the NHMP in 1989–90 and is also consistent with the international literature on homicide (Brookman 2005; Flowers 2002; Miethe & Regoeczi 2004; Polk 1994).
Of the 185 domestic homicides throughout the 2008–10 period, 122 (66%) were sub-classified as intimate partner homicides, 22 (12%) as filicides (7 of which involved an infanticide; that is, the death of a child under 1 year of age), 20 (11%) as parricides and four (2%) as siblicide. The remaining 17 (9%) were classified as ‘other’ family homicides .
122 Deaths by DV IN 2008-2010 and two thirds were Men being killed.
Exactly where will this next Billion Dollars be spent ? More Multi Million Dollar White Ribbon Junkets for Lesbians, Femenazis and disenfranchised old man hating Women ?? Like the $3 Million alone last November and “not one cent for victims”!! How much more for Chikdless, never been married and don’t want kids lesbians to have a piss up ?
How absurd. Men suffer the same as Women and Men respond on less than One Million a year ! How ridiculous less than 2 deaths a week or less, over the last 25 yrs and Women want Hundreds and Hundreds of Millions to do the same job Men survive, relatively unpaid, no burden on the Taxpayer!
Multi Million Dollar a Year Women/Feminist/Lesbian/Greens/Left Wing Junkets and not one cent for victims each year ! We can’t afford that Charity if there is no benefit to Women suffering Domestic Violence.
GOD D’ONT SLEEP….