A lack of funding and uncertainty about funding for specialist family violence legal assistance providers continues to put Aboriginal women and children’s lives at risk. The Federal Government has heard the sector loud and clear: Djirra and the other specialist Family Violence Prevention and Legal Services (FVPLS) need FUNDING, need CERTAINTY, and we must have it NOW.
The National Access to Justice Partnership (NAJP) will determine the next five years of critical federal funding for FVPLS and other legal assistance providers.
The NAJP succeeds the National Legal Assistance Partnership (NLAP), due to expire June 2025. As this date draws closer, Djirra continues to advocate strongly for the NAJP to include:
- Longer-term funding for at least five years
- Quarantined funding for FVPLS
- Pay parity for FVPLS staff, where over 90% of staff are women, with the significantly better resourced parts of the legal assistance sector
- Indexation of funds so we can keep pace with rising inflation
- More funding to address the crisis that is Aboriginal women’s safety in this country including making sure that every Aboriginal woman experiencing family and sexual violence can access holistic legal and non-legal supports from FVPLS as her first choice, wherever she is across the country
- Recognition of the greater complexity and duration of supporting Aboriginal clients through hostile systems, including ensuring support for the unique challenges that Aboriginal people face when working in their own communities.
We DESERVE clarity
We are less than nine months away from NLAP’s expiry and there is still no clarity about the funding allocation to Djirra and other FVPLS.
Djirra CEO Antoinette Braybrook AM says, “As promises are made and headlines fade, we still have no specific details about increased funding for Djirra and other FVPLS. Without certainty and clarity, women and children’s lives are at risk. Without certainty and clarity, our workforce is impacted – we cannot retain staff and attract experienced people to work with us on extremely complex legal matters.
We are unable to meet the current demand for our service. In the last year alone, demand for Djirra’s services grew by 33% compared with the previous year. In the first three months of 2024, demand increased an additional 22%. It is not enough to just get indexation and more money towards addressing the pay inequities we experience. We need significantly more funding to meet unmet legal need so that all Aboriginal women, no matter where they live, can access high quality, culturally safe legal assistance to keep them safe and together with their children. Aboriginal mums deserve better.
Aboriginal mums experiencing family violence, no matter where they live, must have access to Djirra’s holistic legal and non-legal support services. In Victoria, Government must prioritise and invest in the expansion of our regional services to ensure that women do not have to travel more than one hour or 100 kms for a service for their safety.”
There must be a focus on Aboriginal women’s safety
The NAJP must address the unique issues that impact Djirra staff. Our frontline work is devastating and has far reaching impacts that go well beyond what happens in other areas of law.
“Supporting Aboriginal women and children experiencing family violence is devastating and requires a specialised lens. It is extremely complex work that often takes place over a long period of time. It is ESSENTIAL that governments recognise this. Often, our work is the difference between survival or death,” says Djirra CEO Antoinette Braybrook AM.
We urge the Federal and State Governments to explicitly recognise the unique experiences and pressures that Aboriginal family violence workforces face in navigating hostile and racist systems.
The mental, cultural and spiritual impact that frontline work has on our workforce must be better understood and resources to support staff must be available. This is particularly important when considering the unique issues Aboriginal people face when working in their own communities.
“The new agreement must align with the Federal Government’s recognition of gender-based violence as a national crisis. Promises will not save women’s lives, action will” says Djirra CEO Antoinette Braybrook AM.
We MUST HAVE real action on Closing the Gap
Whilst Djirra welcomes the Government’s commitment for the new NAJP to contribute to Closing the Gap, including investing in our self-determined data systems, we must see this commitment result in REAL ACTION.
We need governments to commit to working in partnership with, and adequately resourcing Djirra and other FVPLS, Aboriginal Legal Services (ALS) and our respective national bodies to develop a specific standalone Closing the Gap schedule to the NAJP. The schedule will set out how Closing the Gap is brought to life in the new agreement.
The schedule MUST include a clear timeframe and process for reallocating resources from mainstream legal services to ALS and FVPLS so that all Aboriginal people can access an Aboriginal-led legal service as their first choice wherever they reside in the country. To do this, there must be transparency about the actual levels of expenditure and services provided by mainstream services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and an assessment of the real cost of delivering culturally safe legal assistance by FVPLS and ALS. We call for action on this within the first two years of the new agreement.
“The inclusion of Closing the Gap in the new NAJP is welcome, but it must be more than just words. It means tangible, measurable actions and a timetable for delivery. It means working with, and investing in, Family Violence Prevention and Legal Services and other Aboriginal Legal Services. Investing in our self-determined services, in our systems for collecting, recording and reporting data and sharing the experiences of our people using our services, and in our Aboriginal family violence workforce,” says Djirra CEO Antoinette Braybrook AM.