28 September 2026

The Greens NSW are demanding more money and genuinely new investment to support victim-survivors of sexual assault, as Labor reheat old funding commitment in media ploy.

Today’s announcement from the Albanese and Minns Labor Governments for $1.74 million to supposedly expand Legal Aid NSW’s capacity to provide legal advice and assistance for victim-survivors of sexual violence is an old announcement without new money attached.

The Sexual Assault Survivor’s Legal Service, supposedly launched today, has been explicitly included in what the Labor Government are calling the Strengthening Sexual Violence Justice Responses package, first announced in March 2026, then re-announced in August, and then a third time again today.

While being described as an expansion of Legal Aid NSW’s functions, the most recent budget saw Legal Aid NSW receive a 3.6% funding cut for 2026/27, around $24 million, compared to last year’s revised funding amount. This has already resulted in Legal Aid NSW significantly cutting programs and services, particularly in family law proceedings. The cuts have also resulted in some services ceasing entirely, for example Legal Aid NSW’s Domestic Violence Unit face-to-face outreach service at the Central Coast Community Women’s Health Centre, which had been operating for close to four decades providing free, specialist Domestic Family and Sexual Violence legal advice. 

Quotes attributable to Abigail Boyd, Greens NSW Spokesperson for Gendered Violence and Abuse:

“The Minns and Albanese Labor governments have announced this same funding package at least 3 times in the last 6 months. Talk is cheap, and this is cheap politics. Victim survivors deserve more respect than being used as a PR exercise for State and Federal governments that are consistently failing to invest in the programs and services that keep victim-survivors safe.

“The programs that will be funded under this program are overdue and welcome. They deserve to be taken seriously, rather than used cynically as part of some media management strategy.

“What is particularly offensive about this announcement is that the only thing that has changed since this supposed expansion of Legal Aid NSW’s capacity was first announced in March this year are the Federal and then State budgets that in fact cut funding to Legal Aid NSW’s overall budget. Legal Aid NSW are operating with $24 million less this year than they did last year, but these Labor governments are seemingly looking for praise that they didn’t jointly cut its funding by $25.7 million.

“A measly $1.7 million funding program for a statewide service, to be delivered from a reduced overall funding envelope, is hardly something to crow about. The three separate media releases in six months may well be the symptom of a guilty conscience.

“NSW and Australia are grappling with, and failing to address, a Domestic Family and Sexual Violence crisis. It’s one thing to completely fail to invest in keeping people safe, but it’s an all new level of shameful and cynical to respond to the steady drumbeat of horrific incidents reported in the news with misinformation and spin with endlessly reheated and reshuffled funding commitments that failed to be sufficient to meet the moment the first time they were announced, let alone the third.

“The Greens NSW are calling for significant funding to be directed towards the gendered violence crisis in our State - at least an additional $200 million for domestic and family violence frontline services and programs, a restoration of funding for Legal Aid and a continuation of funding for the 1800 Fullstop Sexual Violence Hotline. Anything less than this is just an acknowledgment that Labor is more interested in trying to get a media story than in delivering real women’s safety outcomes.”