2016-04-28
Community Legal Centres, which help thousands of family violence victims with their legal problems, have been overlooked in the Victorian budget.
"Two in every three victims of family violence who seek intervention orders never receive any legal advice," said Nina Springle, the Greens' spokesperson for the prevention of family violence.
"It's essential that people escaping family violence get access to the kind of specialist independent legal advice that frontline community legal centres provide, but the Victorian Government doesn't seem to recognise that.
"We welcome the investment in family violence prevention, but this is a massive oversight that can be easily addressed, and should be addressed as a matter of urgency," Ms Springle said.
Sue Pennicuik, the Greens' spokesperson for justice said, "Demand for the family violence services provided by Community Legal Centres has increased by nearly 500 per cent over the last decade, but the budget just doesn't reflect that.
"Community legal centres have decades of experience providing urgent and holistic assistance to people escaping family violence, but they've only received just over half of what they need to fund their existing services -- and that's not even including in-court duty lawyer work and the important policy and law reform work they do.
"This problem will only become more urgent when the Commonwealth slashes 30 per cent of its funding for community legal centres from next year," said Ms Pennicuik.
FACT SHEET:
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The budget provides $4.6 million for "family violence legal assistance", but this is to be split between CLCs and Victoria Legal Aid. CLCs need $4 million on their own to cope with existing demand, not including duty lawyer work or policy and law reform work.
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The Royal Commission did not define Community Legal Centres as "specialist family violence services", despite the fact that CLCs do provide specialist legal services for family violence victims. The budget provides $104 million for "specialist family violence services".
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66% of all applications for Intervention Orders in family violence cases are taken out by Victoria Police without the victim's consent: the overwhelming majority of these victims do not receive independent legal advice.
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Only 28% of family violence victims seeking intervention orders received legal advice from a CLC during 2014-15. Incorporating legal services provided by Victoria Legal Aid, it is estimated that only approximately 1 in every 3 intervention order applicants ever receive independent legal advice.
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The provision of legal advice to victims reduces the chances of IVO breaches, and ensures that victims better understand their options within the legal and justice systems.