The 2015 Australian Federal Budget fails to adequately support victims of domestic violence in three key ways: 1) It cuts funding for legal aid and community legal centers that provide crucial assistance to domestic violence victims navigating the legal system. 2) It increases fees for family court proceedings, potentially preventing many domestic violence victims from accessing the courts due to financial barriers. 3) Remaining policies like the "divorce tax" maintain legal ties between victims and their abusers, preventing true freedom and safety.

1. 7/18/2015 Budget fails victims of domestic violence
http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/opinion/16630­budget­fails­victims­of­domestic­violence?tmpl=component&print=1&page= 1/3
Budget fails victims of domestic violence
09 June, 2015
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This year’s Federal Budget threatens to compromise those affected by domestic violence, barrister
Kylie Hillard writes.
The 2015 Australian of the Year and fierce domestic violence advocate Rosie Batty (pictured)
questioned the commitment of government to the eradication of domestic violence when speaking at
the Women and Justice Forum: Women on the Front Line as part of the ACT Law Society's Law
Week in Canberra last month (12 May).
And rightly so.
Ms Batty spoke of the stress and anxiety of having to deal with domestic violence proceedings and the
Family Court process without legal support because she did not have the funds to pay for lawyers, she
did not qualify for legal aid and she was unable to access other legal support services.
She did not have the luxury of having a legal advocate to stand up for her to provide a voice for
herself and her son, Luke, and instead had to stand alone to fight to make people understand that “a
threat to kill was big s**t”.
She, understandably, “lost faith in the justice system” and warns that without proper government
funding and community support, it will only get worse.
Ms Batty says: “The journey of domestic violence always escalates, it never goes away, there are red
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2. 7/18/2015 Budget fails victims of domestic violence
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flags along the way.”
She says that without the proper training for all those who work in the system to recognise the red
flags, the system fails people – as it did Ms Batty and her son, who was killed by his father in 2014.
Ms Batty called for organisations, such as the Women’s Legal Centre and other frontline specialist
services, to be allocated more resources and funding to combat domestic violence.
She also reflected on the financial cost of legal proceedings when navigating the parenting order or
custody process, and questioned what really was in the ‘best interests’ of a child who has been
exposed to domestic violence.
The reality is that many women in violent relationships face the unfathomable decision of having to
settle parenting orders because they cannot afford to fight to prevent the perpetrator from having
access to children exposed to domestic violence – a dilemma no parent should ever face.
The Budget response to the serious issue of domestic violence not only increases pressure on families
with cuts to the parental leave scheme, but fails to heed the recommendations of the Australian
Productivity Commission identifying the need to drastically increase legal aid funding, a
recommendation that gained almost unprecedented support from the Attorneys­General across
Australia.
And while on its face, the Budget provides for limited increases in funding to Community Legal
Centres, these are inadequate to meet the demands on Community Legal Centres.
The National Association of Community Legal Centres and the Federation of Community Legal
Centres warn of worsening conditions if funding is not drastically increased.
However, the Budget does not stop there in potentially compromising victims of domestic violence.
The increased filing fees in the Family Court of Australia (and other Federal Courts) directly
compromises the safety of women and children in domestically violent relationships who may be
financially barred from initiating or continuing parental or custody proceedings due to the increased
fees.
The introduction of this ‘divorce tax’ among the fees also has a profound effect upon victims of
domestic violence. Remaining married maintains a legal tie to the perpetrator of domestic violence
and prevents victims from achieving true freedom. It also creates the perception that the perpetrator
has stronger ties (and entitlement to access) to children. Some say “marriage is a tie that binds”, yet
for victims of domestic violence it ties in more ways than one.
Anne Sheehan, National Representative of Soroptimist International Australia, states “the increase in
court filing fees, combined with reduced access to legal aid funding and reduced capacity to obtain
assistance from domestic violence community legal centres … is untenable [for] such vulnerable
people [to be in that] position.”
And, we must not forget that since the Budget release, statistically, at least another two women have
died from domestic violence and many more have been hospitalised.
At the Women and Justice Forum, Ms Batty also said: “I may seem angry, I may be passionate, but I
will take a stand, and it’s within all of us to take a stand”, and called not only for government to step
up, but for the corporate sector to also provide much­needed assistance to work to eradicate domestic
violence.
How many more women and children need to die or be hospitalised before this issue is taken seriously
by our government and community?

3. 7/18/2015 Budget fails victims of domestic violence
http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/opinion/16630­budget­fails­victims­of­domestic­violence?tmpl=component&print=1&page= 3/3
Even one is too many.
Kylie Hillard is a barrister at Griffith Chambers in Brisbane.
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