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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-04-13 Daily Xml
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Motions

Women's Legal Service

The Hon. J.S. LEE (16:41): I move:

That this council—

1. Congratulates the Women's Legal Service for celebrating its 20th anniversary in October 2015;

2. Acknowledges the significant work and commitment of the Women's Legal Service in achieving justice for women, including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, and women from culturally, linguistically diverse background;

3. Highlights the collaborations and partnerships made throughout its history; and

4. Acknowledges the remarkable achievements by the Women's Legal Service as a community legal centre for women.

In moving this motion, it is my pleasure to provide some background and history of the Women's Legal Service of South Australia. It is a community legal centre focusing on meeting the legal needs of vulnerable women in South Australia in a holistic and empowering manner. The centre is an independent, not-for-profit, politically unaligned and secular community organisation based on Franklin Street in Adelaide.

The Women's Legal Service was founded on 4 October 1995 from widespread community concern about the lack of access to justice for women in South Australia. Over the last 20 years, the Women's Legal Service has been able to harness both volunteer contributions from a wide cross-section of the community and access government funding (both state and federal) to deliver a statewide service to the most vulnerable segments of our community.

The centre focuses on assisting women with legal information, advice, representation, referrals and education on a wide range of issues, including: domestic violence, family law, criminal injuries compensation, discrimination, employment, debts and immigration. In the last 20 years, the centre has had a stellar record. For a community-based, government-funded service, the Women's Legal Service centre has been able to provide advice to 54,928 women, hosted 918 community legal education workshops and sessions, and been involved in 101 law-reform activities.

The 2014-15 annual report noted that: 50 per cent of clients were victims of family violence; 62 per cent of clients have dependent children at home; 60 per cent of clients have an income of less than $25,000; 16 per cent of clients were at risk of being homeless; and 14 per cent of clients have a disability. Volunteers contributed 5,928 hours in 2014-15, and 35 per cent of clients are from a non-English speaking background, from 80 countries of birth outside of Australia. These statistics speak volumes of the hard work and dedication of the team involved with the Women's Legal Service over the past 20 years.

Congratulations to all those individuals who have helped in building the reputation and paved the way for the much-needed service for vulnerable women in our community. I would also like to highlight and acknowledge the current chairperson of the Women's Legal Service, Lisa McClure, and the wonderful chief executive officer, Zita Ngor. It was great to catch up with Zita today at the luncheon for the release of the Social Development Committee's report on domestic and family violence. The leadership of Zita, as well as her team, provided a vision of expanding the service to reach a wider community. This initiative has truly broken down the barriers for women living in remote South Australia and even for women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Since the establishment of the Women's Legal Service, its objective has always been to provide legal advice and representation for women within South Australia, particularly in areas where needs are not being met, in particular in educating women on legal matters, and to initiate, promote and undertake research in evaluating existing laws and legal process within the context of the current social structure and work towards law reform in those areas of particular relevance to women.

These visions and objectives outlined by the Women's Legal Service have been able to provide comfort and assistance to those vulnerable women who have been unable to independently defend themselves in various legal matters. Many women seek assistance from the Women's Legal Service for an array of legal inquires, and they include issues such as matters in relation to children (family law); matrimonial property settlement; domestic and family violence, including intervention orders; de facto property; child support; child protection; and tenancy.

In a lucky country like Australia, unfortunately not everyone is lucky. It is quite staggering that every year the Women's Legal Service is servicing more than 3,000 women, providing them with a legal service and information as well as providing secure referrals for their cases. I place my special thanks and acknowledgement on the public record to the Women's Legal Service for their commitment to providing advice and great service to the community, particularly to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and also to rural, regional and remote women.

Generally, when these women are faced with devastating circumstances, such as domestic violence, separation and immigration matters, they are unable either to afford legal assistance or know where to turn for help. The services of the centre are able to do both. They are well known in the community for their legal representation, as well as for referral assistance.

Over the last 12 months, I have personally worked with the Social Development Committee on the recent inquiry into domestic and family violence and deliberation of the report. As a committee member, this inquiry confirmed the importance of agencies like the Women's Legal Service, which are able to provide support and create a safe haven for many vulnerable women who are suffering from all forms of abuse and violence. Without these legal representation services within metropolitan and regional South Australia, many women would be unable to understand their legal rights or be referred on to relevant agencies to get help.

A number of women provided testimony on the assistance and support they have received from the Women's Legal Service, and reading the testimonials truly shows the life-changing impact the Women's Legal Service has on vulnerable women in our community. I would like to share some of these real-life testimonies with members of the chamber today. First, Sarah's story, a lady living in rural South Australia who says:

If I don't understand things, I panic, Women's Legal Service explained things to me so that I could understand what was going on. It was good to be informed of the process, and I could ask questions and the correct answers would be provided…

I have now been able to connect with other services, who I am happy to say have assisted me in finding a new home in an area I have always wanted to live in. If it was not for WLSSA I would still be in a panic. I would not be in the position I am in now. I now know that there is help available out there for people in my position. I now feel that I can get on with my life.

Penny, a family violence survivor and CALD woman, says:

My husband was abusive to me and I was living with him. My husband is older and unwell and I am his carer. I am a foreigner and have no family and few friends here. I had nowhere to go and did not know what to do as I was scared my husband was going to kick me out of the house because he had threatened me with doing so in the past.

I was recommended by my neighbour to Women's Legal Service South Australia. My neighbour's husband helped me find the number for free advice. I found that I had someone to talk to about my problems which also gave me direction.

I am very happy with the service and advice the solicitor provided me, she was efficient, compassionate and kind. I don't have the money to fight legally with my husband and have no-one around me as support…to talk to. WLSSA helped me to get the start I needed.

Michelle, another CALD woman and a young mum, said:

It was during a doctor's visit for my daughter when the doctor noticed that I had marks on my arms and she recommended that I contact Women's Legal Service…As I was not allowed to use the telephone or leave the home without my husband's permission, I visited the WLSSA office when I was on a school excursion with my daughter. I rushed in and spoke to a lawyer. Because I was on a spouse visa, my husband always threatened to have my daughter and I deported if I complained about him or not do what he wanted me to do.

The lawyer helped me to find somewhere to live and get me help from Centacare and the Red Cross. The lawyer was someone who saved me and my daughter. She took my matter all the way to Migration Review Tribunal, and we won, and now we can live in Australia.

Carissa, an Aboriginal mother, says:

I was referred to WLSSA by Relationships Australia. My ex partner had run off with our young baby. He was not allowing me to spend any time or talk to our baby. I did not see my baby for at least three weeks. My support worker came with me to the appointment with WLSSA. The lawyer listened to me, and told me what my options were. She did this in a way that was easy to understand. Both Relationships Australia and my lawyer helped me to link in with different services so that my other children and I were okay.

WLSSA took my case straight away and they helped me to get my baby back. The lawyer made the whole process seem easy to me and she understood that I was nervous. I did not really want to go to court. If it wasn't for WLSSA I would not have known what to do, and I would not have got my baby back.

All these testimonies have demonstrated that the services offered by the Women's Legal Service are extremely life changing. It can be a daunting experience for any vulnerable female who needs to escape an abusive partner.

As the shadow parliamentary secretary for multicultural affairs, I have talked to many community members. It is well recognised that English language skills are paramount to settling in Australia, yet there are many migrant women who do not speak English at all. This can create barriers to gaining employment and accessing health services and it generally leads to feeling disconnected. These women are very much living in isolation.

It is extremely difficult and daunting for CALD women to negotiate the legal system on issues such as the division of property, the care of children, and domestic violence. Many of these women have a large degree of difficulty in accessing services and are often left to appear in court unrepresented. Therefore, the services provided by the Women's Legal Service, as well as the use of interpreting services to obtain financial disclosure, the preparation of court documents and appearances in domestic violence and family law matters, are services that are highly commendable and worthy for any new migrant or vulnerable woman in our community.

The work of the Women's Legal Service simply does not stop with assisting legal cases. They also invest their time and services into preventative measures to ensure women are educated on a variety of service provers and legal information. For example, the service provides community legal education workshops and seminars for women and service providers. Those sessions cover intervention orders and family violence, family law, child protection, and case notes for service providers. These intervention workshops are conducted through the state and are held in collaboration with a number of organisations.

At this point, I also want to make some remarks and pay tribute to some of the organisations that support the Women's Legal Service. They are:

Red Cross;

Aboriginal Family Support Services;

Umoona Community Health;

UnitingCare Wesley;

Uniting Communities;

Southern Women's DV Service;

Migrant Women's Lobby Group;

Family Relationship Centres;

NPY Women's Council;

SAPOL;

TAFE SA; and

Migrant Resource Centre

The Women's Legal Service has been an invaluable service to many people within the community. It is a great honour today to have the opportunity to recognise the outstanding work of the Women's Legal Service as they strive for equality and the betterment of living standards for women in our community.

Congratulations to the Women's Legal Service on its 20th anniversary. I would like to thank the management, staff, board members, strategic partners and the many volunteers for their commitment and dedication to achieving social justice and serving the community. With those remarks, I commend this motion to the chamber.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. G.A. Kandelaars.

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