The 2022 federal budget included funding announcements for certain initiatives in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (FCFCOA) and some additional funding to assist Legal Aid Commissions (LACs).
The funding announcements include:
- $63.75 million to the FCFCOA over four years for the extension and expansion of the Lighthouse Project pilot;
- $24.2 million for LACs over three years to raise their capacity to meet increased demand for representation services to assist in the implementation of the Lighthouse Project;
- $52.4 million over four years to LACs to meet expected demand for support under the Family Violence and Cross Examination of Parties Scheme (though the Government has not released the outcome of its review of the s102NA scheme, completed last year);
- $22 million has been allocated over five years from 2021-22 to support the placement of state child protection and policing officials in the family law courts across Australia to facilitate information sharing between the family law, child protection and family violence systems.
- $16.5 million over two years from 2021-22 to support LACs to meet the cost of legal representation, including independent children’s lawyers, in response to the increased costs of the new case management system;
- $7 million over two years for nine Women’s and Community Legal Services nationally, to help women access legal assistance and migration support and $5.4 million over two years to existing legal assistance services operating within Queensland and NSW to support individuals and businesses affected by the recent floods.
A media release from the FCFCOA on this increased funding can be accessed here and a release from the Law Council of Australia can be found here.
This article was originally published by https://www.familylawsection.org.au/ on April 11, 2022.
