DV services struggle
Women forced to wait a month for vital advice
VULNERABLE Far Northern women are waiting up to a month for vital legal help on domestic violence and child protection cases as services struggle to keep up with demand. The latest Cairns Magistrates Court annual report shows domestic violence applications have increased by more than 500 over three years.
VULNERABLE Cairns women are waiting up to four weeks for critical legal advice.
North Queensland Women’s Legal Service is struggling to keep up as the demand for legal appointments has spiked by 50 per cent in the past 12 months.
NQWLS principal solicitor Hayley Grainger said that one in six calls to the centre’s advice line was going unanswered and women were waiting up to three to four weeks for an appointment.
“There are a lot of women who are not able to access legal advice when they need it,” Ms Grainger said.
“Even when it’s super urgent, we literally don’t have anywhere to squeeze them in.”
This means women facing domestic violence and child protection proceedings are doing so without legal representation and settling for outcomes that are not always the best for them.
Ms Grainger and other justice experts are pushing for more funding to stop vulnerable Cairns residents falling through the legal cracks.
There have been more than 9100 appointments across the Cairns and Townsville offices since July 1, a huge jump from about 6000 in the 2016-17 financial year.
“Often women are very traumatised, but when self-representing they are forced to crossexamine their perpetrator and he will cross-examine them as well,” Ms Grainger said.
“It is hard enough for a solicitor to prosecute a matter, so for a woman to stand up and prosecute their own matter is no easy feat.”
Domestic and family violence protection applications in the Cairns courts have risen over the last three years, the Magistrates Courts of Queensland Annual Report shows.
There were 2018 protection orders made in 2016-17, which is 246 more than the year before and 525 more than the 2014-15 financial year.
Ms Grainger believed this increase stemmed from the public focus on domestic violence, which has made those going through it more comfortable in coming forward.
“That goes hand-in-hand with reforms and increased awareness and willingness of police to recognise domestic violence and actually pursue applications against perpetrators,” she said.
“I don’t know whether the rates of domestic violence have increased.”
NQWLS Cairns has two solicitors as well as Ms Grainger, who is acting director for the service.
The Townsville office also has two solicitors and an acting principal as well as a specialised domestic violence service with two lawyers and a social worker.
“We could double our current staff and resources and it wouldn’t be enough,” Ms Grainger said.
Ms Grainger said the Cairns office was in need of its own specialised domestic violence service, which offered a “holistic service delivery model”.
“It does allow us to assist the most vulnerable women with all their legal and non-legal means,” she said.
“We also deliver duty lawyer services through the Domestic Violence Court and the Federal Circuit Court for women who aren’t represented.”