Women's Legal Service Tasmania is having to choose which victim-survivors it represents as concerns grow about where Commonwealth funding for the sector is actually ending up.
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Chief executive Yvette Cehtel said the excessive carving up of government funds was a factor in "trapping women in poverty".
In the 2021-22 budget, the federal government dedicated $129 million over four years for legal assistance funding to help women access justice.
The budget statement reads "this funding will be directed to women's legal centres, to enable these providers to respond to increasing demand for domestic violence assistance".
The money was distributed to state and territory attorneys general to be handed out to local services, but not all has gone to specialty women's legal services.
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Broken promises
In Tasmania, $5.3 million is shared between seven services - but not all are on the frontline.
Recipients include Tasmania Legal Aid, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Legal Service, Hobart Community Legal Service, Launceston Community Legal Centre, North-West Community Legal Centre, and Tenants' Union of Tasmania.
The state's Women's Legal Service will receive $1.3 million over four years.
Ms Cehtel said the money had not gone where it was promised.
"I'm not saying that none of those services need money, but they should not have received the money that was promised in the women's budget statement to women's legal centres," she said.
Ms Cehtel said her service was the only one instituting property proceedings.
"We have to decide who is most deserving of assistance," she said.
"There is no choice if no other service does that work, and perpetrators of family violence are not going to voluntarily give up what they see as their stuff, their property."
Ms Cehtel said there needed to be provisions in Commonwealth contracts preventing funding commitments being frustrated by state governments, which distribute the funds.
"That's introduced a new political layer ... of decision-making, and imposes a barrier to the distribution of money in accordance with the Commonwealth budget," she said.
'We've lost one of our most important rights'
Victim-survivor Lauren* left an abusive relationship over a decade ago. She spent six years going through the courts and had to self-litigate after running out of funding.
"I had to cross-examine my abuser," she said.
"It adds to the trauma of what you're already going through."
Lauren's abuser had access to a barrister and solicitor throughout the entire proceedings.
"I didn't have a chance," she said.
Lauren's case was unsuccessful, and she lost custody of her children.
She and her partner had two properties and two businesses and a sizeable bank account. Tired of fighting and in debt to Legal Aid, Lauren accepted a settlement below her share.
Lauren said she was "appalled" Commonwealth funding did not go directly to specialty women's centres.
"It's just wrong," she said.
Lauren said navigating the legal system was extremely complicated, and victim-survivors needed women's legal centres to support them.
"My biggest fear is [victim-survivors] will give up and realise it's just impossible, it's too hard, and they'll return to their abuser," she said.
"We've lost one of our most important rights - to understand what the legal system means."
Victim-survivors will feel like 'something is their fault'
Engender Equality chief executive Alina Thomas said getting to a point of seeking support was often an "enormous journey" for victim-survivors.
"To be service seeking and not [be] able to find an appropriate service means that people will go back to feeling like something is their fault, that the problem is their fault, because if they were actually in the right, then there'd be someone there to support them," she said.
"It may be the only opportunity that that person has to service seek. So it may mean that they never return to try and get support into the future."
Ms Thomas said women's legal centres were "absolutely critical", with generalist services not having the same family violence and sexual violence lens.
"There are so many considerations and nuances that must be held in mind when we're working with victim-survivors to be able to be prioritising their safety and that of their children, [and] when that's missing, people's safety is often compromised," she said.
"And that's where that family violence lens is absolutely critical to be able to see a situation for what it is, rather than just taking it at face value, which a generic service is more likely to do."
Ms Thomas said service responses needed to validate the experience of victim-survivors.
"So when ... our service responses isn't allowing for that possibility, we become part of that broader system that is silencing, that is discrediting, that is diminishing the experience of abuse," she said.
"So that's why it is just so critical for people in these positions and in living in these conditions to be able to have access to a system that is going to be able to listen to them, believe them and validate their experience."
Ms Thomas said it was "very disappointing" the funds were not funnelled directly, and the decision was not in keeping with broader societal conversations about women's safety.
"In the future that will need to be rectified. We need to be putting our money into the specialist services so that when women and other victim-survivors are seeking help there's the appropriate response there for them."
'They stay there and put up with it'
Launceston White Ribbon Committee secretary Carol Fuller said when women didn't have access to legal aid, it became harder to leave.
"Having the guidance and the legal expertise, if they can't access that, they don't know what their rights are, these women," she said.
"And so instead of leaving, they stay there and put up with it.
"It's despicable that that money should be diverted away from what it was intended [for]."
Flexibility and choice in service provision
A Tasmanian Department of Justice spokesperson said under Commonwealth advice, the funding was for any legal assistance provider dedicated to servicing vulnerable women, not exclusively women's legal services.
The spokesperson said the roll-out allowed for flexibility and choice in service delivery, and ensured greater access.
"This appropriately recognises that many legal assistance providers provide services specifically for women, in addition to other services for the most vulnerable in our community," they said.
State and territory governments 'best placed'
Former federal Attorney-General Michaelia Cash said state and territory Governments were best placed to distribute funds to individual service providers.
Ms Cash said the Commonwealth encouraged states and territories to allocate funding to providers delivering dedicated legal assistance services to women, as well as some community legal centres specialising in family violence.
"This was necessary because some communities, particularly remote and regional communities, do not have dedicated women's legal centres," she said.
"These women are supported by generalist community legal centres, and a failure to fund these centres would have meant women in remote and regional communities would have been cut off from much needed support.
"Our objective was to ensure that this funding goes to the services directly working with the women who most need this support."
'I want to fix this'
Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said women's legal services were under enormous pressure and badly needed the funding.
"Unfortunately, the former government did not ensure this happened," he said.
"I want to fix this, and do what I can to get this support to the women in crisis who need it most."
Mr Dreyfus said he asked his department to investigate how much of the $129 million had flowed to frontline women's legal services.
"I want any future such agreements ensure funding dedicated to women's legal services reaches those who it is intended for, and need it most, in particular, women who are experiencing, or at risk of, family violence."
*Name has been changed
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