Family Dispute Resolution in Australia: The Under-Servicing of Indigenous, Migrant and Refugee Families Experiencing Family Violence

Improving access to legal services for Indigenous, migrant and refugee women is critical to addressing family violence. In this context, Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) has long been discussed as a solution for separating families. This paper presents key findings of a research evaluation of an Australian Government $8.37 million pilot project designed to deliver Legally Assisted Culturally Appropriate Family Dispute Resolution (LACAFDR) to separating families experiencing family violence, where parents were from Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. Drawing on 216 interviews and two separate large-scale client datasets, key findings show that even with additional funding, mainstream Family Relationship Centres continued to under-service Indigenous and CALD families. The paper discusses this under-servicing in the broader context of the key barriers that Indigenous and CALD clients face when accessing family relationship, family violence, family dispute resolution and legal services from mainstream Family Relationship Centre (FRC) providers.