Domestic violence royal commission ‘should examine family law system’

The family law system should be examined as part of a royal commission into domestic violence, crossbench MPs have urged, as experts warn that survivors face crushing legal bills and perpetrators are weaponising proceedings.

Teal independents Zali Steggall and Monique Ryan want Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to set up a national inquiry into the family violence crisis amid calls for an urgent injection of funds for legal assistance services.

Family lawyers say parents fleeing abusive relationships face legal bills potentially totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars in years-long court fights because they do not qualify for legal aid.

Ryan said her constituents in Melbourne’s Kooyong “often tell me about their difficulties with financial burden and the family law system after leaving violent or coercive relationships”.

A royal commission into domestic and family violence “is the most comprehensive, transparent and credible pathway to uncovering systemic failures and ensuring that victim‑survivors aren’t re-traumatised by the institutions meant to protect them”, Ryan said.

“We need to address costs, limited access to legal aid, and the ways in which the legal system can become another arena for coercive control, to ensure that those escaping family violence are better protected by our legal system.”

Legal Aid NSW has warned of a crisis in government funding, leading to cuts in its services.

From July 1, it will provide assistance in family law proceedings only to victims of domestic violence and Aboriginal people – but many parents still do not qualify for help because of means tests.

Steggall, the member for the Sydney seat of Warringah, said family law cases were often “the first and only contact with courts that people have”, and it was “incredibly confronting for people to engage with the legal system in that way”.

She said it was particularly important for parties to have legal representation in cases involving allegations of violence, and the adequacy of legal aid funding should be examined.

‘We need to address costs, limited access to legal aid, and the ways in which the legal system can become another arena for coercive control.’

Independent MP Dr Monique Ryan

A royal commission could “cross-check what federal and state governments are doing across all these systems, from legal aid, to crisis accommodation, to all of the areas that we know impact domestic violence”, Steggall said.

She said that family law proceedings involving property “can take 18 months to two years to resolve”.

“What happens in the meantime? More often than not, victims are choosing between poverty and safety. That’s a complete failing of the system,” Steggall said.

The domestic violence prevention sector is split on whether a royal commission would be useful or delay action and divert funding from crucial services.

Albanese last month dismissed calls for a royal commission, but Steggall said she would “keep pushing”.

A spokesperson for the prime minister said on Friday: “We will consider anything that is effective to protect women and their children.

“We have ongoing consultation with the sector about the best way to have an impact.”

Since 2022, the government has allocated more than $4.4 billion to the national plan to end violence against women and children.

National Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin last month said: “We don’t need more reviews” but “more action”. Independent MP Allegra Spender does not support a royal commission.

Steggall said: “We have lots of outstanding recommendations [from previous inquiries]. That’s the point. It’s piecemeal. It needs to be all be pulled together into a commitment to implement all of it.”

‘Deliberately driving up costs’

Sydney barrister Esther Lawson, a family law expert with more than 20 years’ experience, said she had seen parents “go into incredible debt” to pay for lawyers “to keep their kids safe” in cases involving domestic violence. She was supportive of a royal commission.

“We sometimes see a continuation of the violence through the litigation itself by [one party] deliberately driving up the other side’s legal costs,” Lawson said.

“The abuser’s aim in such situations is to bleed the other party into submission so that they are too broke to keep going.”

Lawson said that private companies provided litigation funding in some family law matters involving property, but the loan was secured against an asset pool.

“The ‘working poor’, for obvious reasons, may not have real estate or other assets to secure private litigation funding against,” she said.

Lawson said that “if someone was sick and in need of an operation, we wouldn’t as a society expect them to conduct surgery on themselves”.

“Yet, bizarrely, we expect vulnerable, self-represented mums or dads, who have never entered a courtroom before, to suddenly be able to cross-examine, make objections and argue their case.

“These specialised skills take lawyers years of study, training and experience. They don’t develop overnight and nor can they be effectively outsourced to ChatGTP.”

HECS-style loan scheme

Lawson said one option the government might consider was the feasibility of a loan scheme similar to HECS that could be “rolled out to cater for that middle tier of the population” that did not qualify for legal aid in family law cases.

Steggall said a HECS-style low-interest loan was “worth investigating” in cases where the parties did not qualify for legal aid, “to ensure that you don’t have parties self-represented when there’s domestic violence involved”.

National Legal Aid executive director Yvette D’Ath, a former Queensland attorney-general and justice minister, did not believe a royal commission was necessary because “a lot of the answers are there” as a result of previous inquiries.

She said a national approach was required in the “prevention and early intervention space”, alongside an increase in funding for legal assistance services.

“You need to invest more because the family law system has become more complex and … the cost of delivering those services has significantly increased,” D’Ath said.

A spokesperson for Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said last month that funding for Legal Aid NSW had not been reduced in this year’s budget. In a “historic funding uplift” in the 2025-26 budget, Legal Aid NSW received $559 million over five years from July 1, 2025, they said.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)

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