“If they didn’t help me I could be dead. Or still getting the shit beaten out of me.”
Another woman told us, “I’ve healed a lot because they gave me so much support.”
These are real words from women who came to Central Tablelands and Blue Mountains Community Legal Centre seeking safety. They are not dramatic lines for a campaign. They are the truth.
Alexia is one of 620 women and their children who came to us last year to escape domestic, family and sexual violence. She was facing homelessness, no income and the loss of her children. She didn’t know her rights. Many women don’t. Many are afraid of “the law”. What changed everything was information, advocacy and a human being who listened without judgement.
Every single one of our casework clients has experienced gender‑based violence. Almost all are in serious financial hardship. More than a quarter are in immediate danger when they first reach out. Without the right support at the right time, legal problems escalate. Safety deteriorates. Cycles of violence and poverty deepen. The window for intervention closes fast.
Community Legal Centres (CLCs) are more than advice clinics. We build trust. We listen. We go to court with women when a protection order stands between them and further harm, or when they’ve been misidentified as the perpetrator and need the system to finally see them. For many women, we are the first people who believe them.
Safety is never solved by one service alone. We work shoulder‑to‑shoulder with women’s health services, housing providers and counsellors. A woman cannot leave if she has nowhere to live. She cannot stay safe without legal protection. Both truths hold at once. Legal advice provides the framework: clarity about rights and options, access to services, and the confidence to act. It turns fear into a plan.
This is not just our story. It is happening across Australia. Thousands of women are assisted by community legal centres every year by dedicated staff who know what is at stake: women moving from survival to stability; from fear to agency; from isolation to connection; from a state of crisis to a future characterised by dignity and hope. It is a team effort, and it works.
And yet, after the Women’s Safety Ministerial Council met on 20 February 2026, the public communiqués did not mention the role of legal assistance or CLCs. The omission speaks loudly. If legal help is invisible in national conversations about women’s safety, the very bridge that carries women from danger to protection is left underfunded and overlooked.
The consequences are immediate where I work. Central Tablelands & Blue Mountains Community Legal Centre has just over $800,000 in baseline funding to 2030, nowhere near enough for the complexity and volume of need. From July 2026 we face a $250,000 annual shortfall. That gap isn’t abstract. It is at least 140 women and their children each year who will go without life‑saving advice and representation. It is doors closing, phones unanswered, weeks‑long waits. It is us unable to attend Local Courts for the DV Duty Service. Without early intervention, risk escalates. Violence escalates. Costs, to health, housing, justice, and human life, only escalate.
At Senate Estimates this month, a question was put: Should the Government fund services for every woman who seeks help at a CLC?
The answer is simple. Yes. Because women’s lives are at risk.
If you are reading this, you can help. Write to your local Members. Write to the Attorney General in your state and the Federal Attorney‑General. Tell them that legal help is not optional in the response to domestic and family violence, it is foundational. Tell them that CLCs save lives, and that women and children cannot wait.
Silence costs lives. Funding saves them.
If you or someone you know is experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, domestic, family or sexual violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au for online chat and video call services.
If you are concerned about your behaviour or use of violence, you can contact the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491 or visit http://www.ntv.org.au.
Feeling worried or no good? No shame, no judgement, safe place to yarn. Speak to a 13YARN Crisis Supporter, call 13 92 76. This service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.