Hundreds of victim-survivors turned away daily as legal centres warn of funding shortfall

Against this alarming and urgent backdrop, Arlia Fleming, CEO of the Central Tablelands & Blue Mountains Community Legal Centre and chair of Community Legal Centres Australia, has raised serious concerns about whether the federal government’s response to the crisis is keeping pace with demand.

Fleming underscored the critical role community legal centres play in supporting those experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence, highlighting just how prominent these matters are in the work carried out across the sector nationally.

“Community legal centres are critical domestic, family and sexual violence frontline services. Domestic, family and sexual violence makes up 40–50 per cent of the community legal sector’s work nationally, rising to 75 per cent in rural and remote areas,” she stated.

Yet, despite this growing demand, chronic under-resourcing continues to have severe consequences, with Fleming warning that centres are now being forced to turn away around “400 victim-survivors a day”.

While the federal government announced a funding increase in 2025, she explained that it has done little to boost capacity or meet the growing demand across the community.

“Community Legal Centres Australia welcomed the government’s modest increase in funding announced in 2024 but spread over 5 years, and across 165+ centres, it has done little to increase centres’ capacity to meet growing community need,” she noted.

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Fleming shared how the government appears to treat funding for domestic and family violence legal assistance services as a “settled” issue, but warned that this perception does not reflect the reality facing communities.

So what needs to be done to properly address this issue in full?

For years, Fleming has stressed that community legal centres have called for a substantial increase of “$95 million per year” to significantly reduce the number of victim-survivors being turned away and to ensure timely access to legal assistance.

Acknowledging that the issue is particularly acute in regional and remote areas, Fleming called for increased investment in the Family Court of Australia and local community legal centres to ease backlogs, strengthen trauma-informed practices, and improve access to legal advice and representation.

“Victim-survivors in regional and remote communities face additional barriers to justice, including in the Family Court,” she said.

“There is a critical need for greater government investment in the Family Court itself to address backlogs and support trauma-informed practice, and in regional and remote community legal centres to increase advice and representation for women in Family Court proceedings.”

In response to the gravity of the situation and the urgent need for meaningful change, Fleming called for a range of targeted reforms to address key policy and funding gaps and improve safety for victim-survivors.

“Community Legal Centres Australia Vision for Justice and Actions for the 48th Parliament sets out policy and resourcing recommendations to improve safety for victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence,” she outlined.

“For example, there are several straightforward changes to prevent systemic abuse. The Federal Government is also urged to implement recommendations from the Law Reform Commission’s inquiry into justice responses to sexual violence.”