Legal assistance key to prevent and respond to violence against women and children

Women need to be able to participate safely and meaningfully in family law processes.

In our practice experience, we see the critical need for more access to family law legal help for victim-survivors of family violence.

We have recently made a submission to the Second Action Plan under the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children. The National Plan guides actions towards ending violence against women and children in one generation.

Our submission recommends:

• increasing funding for legal help to ensure that, at a minimum, all family violence victim-survivors living under the poverty line can get legal help with family law
• recognising systems abuse as a form of family violence in family law that is used to harm victim survivors.

Family violence widespread in family law

Executive Director Family, Youth and Children’s Law Joanna Fletcher says that family violence is a defining feature of family law.

‘Victim survivors of family violence are 16 times more likely to have a family law issue than other community members,’ said Joanna.

‘And long-standing under investment in legal assistance means victim survivors of family violence need to be in extreme poverty to get legal aid.’

The majority of family law parenting matters in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (86%), now involve allegations of family violence. This rises to 100% for our legally aided family law matters.

Yet only 8% of households across Australia meet the financial eligibility tests for legal aid, while 14% of people live below the poverty line.

Joanna says this gap has remained unchanged for over a decade.

‘Without a justice safety net, women cannot participate safely or meaningfully in family law processes.

‘This leaves critical decisions about their own and their children’s safety and finances unresolved or unsafe.’

Systems abuse continues to cause harm

Perpetrators of family violence use legal systems to continue causing harm and fear for victim survivors.

This happens across:

• family violence intervention orders
• child support
• child protection
• migration
• the social security system.

Joanna says lawyers are first responders when it comes to systems abuse as a form of family violence.

‘Family lawyers know the systems, they see gaps that can be manipulated, and what actions need to be taken in response.

‘There is supposed to be ‘no wrong door’ for people seeking help for family violence.

‘In practice, though, we see lots of doors for victim-survivors to knock on, but very little – often nothing – behind them in terms of legal help. Years of under-funding means we must turn people away.

‘The Second Action Plan is an opportunity to change this.’

Further recommendations

We’ve also made calls for the Second Action Plan to:

• invest in First Peoples-led responses to family violence
• increase funding to ensure that independent children’s lawyers can be appointed for all children and young people who should be represented
• increase the availability of child-inclusive mediation in family law to enable children to have a voice in decision-making about their care and safety.

More information

Read our full submission to the Second Action Plan under the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children – August 2026.