Women’s legal services around the country have received only a fraction of the funding allocated by the Morrison government, with services in the Northern Territory receiving minuscule amounts despite the region being most severely affected by the domestic and family violence (DFV) crisis.
Last year the Morrison government announced $129 million of funding to women’s legal services across Australia. Per an agreed funding position from the national Women’s Legal Services Australia, the three women’s legal services in the Northern Territory (NT): Top End Women’s Legal Service (TEWLS), Katherine Women’s Information and Legal Service (KWILS), and Central Australian Women’s Legal Service (CAWLS), were set to receive about $32 million of the funding.
It was subsequently announced that any legal service servicing women could bid for the funding, and the funding was distributed under the current national legal assistance partnership model, where it was allocated based on population.
The NT ended up receiving just over $4 million of the funding, with the three women’s legal services receiving less than 1 per cent of national funding each to be rolled out over the next four years.
When she met with Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, Ms Weatherby-Fell was reassured to hear that he was determined not to see the mistake repeated.
“Women’s legal services badly need all of this funding,” said the A-G.
“I was pleased to hear he was shocked by the distribution that occurred following May of last year’s announcement,” said Ms Weatherby-Fell, “but there’s been no new funding since the new Commonwealth government has sworn in”.
On 18 August, the Federal government announced $10.7 million funding to target DFV in the Northern Territory — no funding was allocated to women’s legal services.
Source: Women’s legal services in the NT are being left behind – Lawyers Weekly