Subjects: National Cabinet Agreement; Violence against women; Legal assistance funding
EO&E
CHARLIE PICKERING: Today the National Cabinet has agreed to a $4.7 billion plan to fight domestic and family violence and joining me to discuss the plan is Mark Dreyfus KC. He is the Federal Attorney-General and the Member for Isaacs and joins me now. Good afternoon Mark.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL MARK DREYFUS: Good afternoon Charlie, really good to be with you.
PICKERING: Thank you very much for joining us. And this is an important announcement that needs to be discussed. Now, you spoke to Ali Moore in April this year just before our Violence Against Women Solutions Forum and just after announcing nearly $1 billion to support victim survivors. That was just before another National Cabinet meeting and in that interview you said you were hoping to get concrete ideas about where that money would go. Do we now have a concrete idea about where that money is going, and also this new funding of $4.7 billion?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: We know that it's not going to be any one measure, Charlie, and I'm thrilled about the announcements that were made today by National Cabinet, partly because what that included was a new National Access to Justice Partnership of $3.9 billion, which is a nearly $800 million additional funding injection into the sector. It's going to be over five years and what we've done is heed calls from the sector for greater certainty in funding. One of the reasons why the legal assistance sector, which includes Women's Legal Services, Community Legal Centres, Legal Aid Commissions, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services is important is that the legal assistance sector provides trauma informed legal and related services for things like family law for apprehended violence orders, financial abuse, tenancy, child protection, social security services all of which is a crucial part in supporting women to leave violent and abusive relationships. So a big part of today's announcements was the new National Access to Justice Partnership, it's a very big increase in funding and I'm really pleased.
PICKERING: So, the legal services will be getting increased funding. We've been hearing for months now from frontline services about how desperate they are for funding. Are legal services considered front line or is there separate funding for those organisations?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: They are absolutely frontline services. They're often the very first place that a victim of family, domestic and sexual violence will go is one part or another of the legal assistance sector. They might go to a women's legal service, they might go to a community legal centre, or they might go to a legal aid commission. Or if they're a First Nations woman in remote Australia, they might go to a Family Violence Prevention Legal Service. It is absolutely frontline and providing frontline advice, essential advice on things like, how do you safely leave your abusive partner? How can a woman with children get ownership or get back into the family home if she's been forced to leave? That's something that's going to require legal services. How to make sure that there can be a proper separation of property or arrangements made for the custody of the children. All of those matters are things that legal services provide frontline assistance for.
PICKERING: I'm speaking with Mark Dreyfus, Federal Attorney-General, about today's announcement of $4.7 billion in funding for domestic violence services. The legal services and those that you're talking about are getting increased funding. What about organisations that provide crisis accommodation and the like when women are in the process of escaping abusive partners, often with very little time to do it, what is being offered to them?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: It's of course the case that under the National Partnership Agreement for Family and Domestic and Sexual Violence Responses we do fund those kinds of centres that have been ongoing for a long time. I suppose the point is, Charlie, there's a whole range of things that we are already doing. There's a whole range of things that we've been doing for a long time but that, like the legal assistance sector, need more funding to make sure that enough services are going to be provided. That's why I'm so excited about this additional $800 million because it's going to make possible providing more services to more women and children and more people who need legal services. That's what more money will do for you. And as well, other things that were agreed on today that are more specifically directed at gender-based violence are things like new trials of innovative models - because not only do we have to properly fund the services that we know are needed and that we know work - we have to keep looking for other ways of doing things. And one of the agreements between the States and the Commonwealth today was for Domestic Violence Threat Assessment Centres, which is necessarily going to be a partnership between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories, because it requires cooperation with the State and Territory police forces and evidence-based policing for them to work. So, absolutely, we're looking all the time for new ways of doing things, but we're also making sure that existing services are properly funded and can meet the need, the legal needs and other needs of our community.
PICKERING: Part of this announcement also was the funding for intervention programs for perpetrators. Tell us about them.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: This is about identifying high risk perpetrators, trying different tactics so as to make it clear that their violence is unacceptable, that criminal justice consequences will be enforced for further offending, and also that there's support available to stop offending. It's something that's being called focused deterrence approaches but equally, there's this other part of it which is the Domestic Violence Threat Assessment centres, which is centres that are going to have intelligence analysts, mental health clinicians, family violence practitioners working together to identify and case manage high risk perpetrators, including those who are less likely to be known to police, such as offenders who are practising coercive control of their partners.
PICKERING: Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley criticised the time frame set out in the government's plan to stamp out domestic violence. She had this to say today:
LEY: On the current trajectory of women losing their lives, being killed by a man, we would see 40 more women lose their lives before a dollar of this money is spent. If the Prime Minister thought it was important to have a rapid review, he should also have a rapid response.
PICKERING: Is that a fair point for the deputy Opposition leader to make that this is a national emergency? We all know that it's happening now. It's not happening next year. Should this be rolled out sooner?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: I'm not going to be lectured by the deputy leader of a party which in government left a funding cliff for the entire legal assistance sector with no money at all provided after the 1st of July 2025. I'm not going to be lectured by the deputy leader of a party that cut funding for legal assistance services while they were in government. This is going to make a difference right now, Charlie. It's going to provide certainty for these frontline services that provide legal assistance - Women's Legal services, Community Legal Centres, Legal Aid Commissions, Aboriginal Legal Services, all of them are going to have the certainty that they need to plan that after the 1st of July next year, there's a 5-year partnership with the states and territories and ongoing funding after that. Now that's going to make a difference now, because it means that they can be confident that they can go out and hire new staff, they can go out and get bigger premises because they're going to get more money, and they are certain that they are going to get more money. So, I just think it's a bit rich coming from Sussan Ley, the Deputy Leader of a party that, as I say, failed to provide properly for this sector and cut money for legal assistance services while they were in government.
PICKERING: If you're just joining us, I'm speaking with Mark Dreyfus, who's the Federal Attorney-General and member for Isaacs. There was an announcement at the national cabinet today of $4.7 billion of funding going forward for the. Well, what we can all say is the crisis of domestic violence in this country. Mark, I wanted to ask you, at our forum, Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia, Will Alstergren said this is about the lack of a national database of family violence court orders. Have a listen to what he had to say.
CHIEF JUSTICE WILL ALSTERGREN: There is no database of orders that actually are involved in domestic family violence cases. From a national point of view, it's quite staggering.
ALI MOORE: Um, so that means you've got to stop the case, and wait for a response, and the whole thing is delayed?
ALSTERGREN: Normally we try and do other things at the same time, but you're right, it causes delay.
PICKERING: Is there any update on that? It seems like a fairly straightforward priority.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Oh, absolutely, and that's why we legislated last year to provide for information sharing between the Family Courts and state and territory departments, state and territory police. That law came into effect on the 6th of May this year and in the package today, National Cabinet has agreed to continue and enhance information sharing arrangements between the family law, family violence and child protection systems. These arrangements are now showing themselves to be crucial in informing the Family Law courts of safety risks to children and victim survivors. And there's, I think, a figure of around $58 million to ensure that courts and state and territory agencies can meet the high demand for information sharing that the Chief Justice was talking about there. So we've legislated, and we've provided additional funding here, National Cabinet's reached agreement between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories to continue and enhance the information sharing arrangements.
PICKERING: Domestic violence is not just a national scourge, it's a national shame. And regardless of what side of politics you're on, I'm sure you would hope that this announcement will form part of a national solution. Mark Dreyfus KC, Federal Attorney-General, Member for Isaacs, thank you for your time this afternoon.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Thanks very much, Charlie. We want all violence against women and children to stop and we won't be satisfied until it does. Thanks very much.
