Premier Will Hodgman announced an additional $400,000 for Women’s Legal Service Tasmania to support the two new lawyers in 2018 and 2019, on top of the $26 million family violence action plan, pledged last year. 

Claire Milligan is one of the new recruits and has been training in Burnie for the past six weeks. She will be moving to Launceston for the job, with the second job to be advertised, and a replacement sought for the Burnie office.

“I think it’s really important making sure people have access to the law and access to justice,” she said.

“The people we help at the women’s legal service are disadvantaged people and otherwise wouldn’t have access to justice in the system.

“It’s been quite confronting thinking about the amount of family violence that are in small communities in Tasmania.”

WLST principal lawyer Donna Semmens said the two extra solicitors would allow the service to assist more people in regional locations and provide an outreach service in remote areas.

“We do have a phone service, which is statewide, so we can assist people over the phone, but there comes a point with matters where you need to see your clients face to face and assist them in court, which we haven’t previously been able to do here in Launceston and the North East,” she said.

“There is always more demand than resources can cope with. This is obviously a fantastic contribution to our service and there will be a lot of good done with it but there’s always more demand than resources can meet.”

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Mr Hodgman said the extra funding was an important part of the government’s family violence response. 

“It’s part of an evolving commitment that this government has to support the victims of abuse and to support qualified professionals who can assist us in that,” he said.

“I often go back to my first most significant point of contact on this and that was many discussions with Rosie Batty, who is a real example of someone in these circumstances who was done a great disservice by an imperfect system, that legal professionals are a critical part as they were in her case.”