MARK DREYFUS
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
LINDA BURNEY
SHADOW MINISTER FOR FAMILIES AND SOCIAL SERVICES
JULIE COLLINS MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN
SENATOR JENNY MCALLISTER
SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMMUNITIES AND THE PREVENTION OF FAMILY VIOLENCE
DESPERATE CALLS FOR WOMEN’S LEGAL HELP GO UNANSWERED UNDER MORRISON GOVERNMENT
Legal services are having to turn away up to half the financially disadvantaged and vulnerable women escaping domestic and family violence who come to them desperate for help.
The Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 has today been told frontline legal services dealing with domestic violence matters were already struggling before the pandemic hit, and are now unable to answer 50 per cent of their calls.
Today’s evidence shows that the additional funding promised to these services in May was too little and is being delivered too late, and that the Morrison Government must step up and do more.
Day after day we see new evidence of the terrible impact COVID-19 is having on Australian women, but yet again the Morrison Government is only there for the photo op but never the follow-up.
Women’s Legal Service Queensland saw a 50 per cent increase in calls for assistance in May and a 30-35 percent increase in August, compared to the same periods last year.
This, at a time when Women's Legal Service Queensland was already having to turn away 40 per cent of its calls - or 6,600 women in need - before the pandemic struck.
The thousands of women and their families who rely on these services deserve better from the Morrison Government.
TUESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2020
