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Speaker 1: I did make mention a little bit earlier this morning

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Speaker 1: about the situation where we've had a pressure release come

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Speaker 1: through from the Northern Territory government a little earlier today,

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Speaker 1: just letting us know about these changes when it comes

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Speaker 1: to domestic violence and providing the opportunity for Territorians to

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Speaker 1: certainly have their say. So, the Northern Territory Labor governments

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Speaker 1: say that they plan to improve their justice response to

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Speaker 1: domestic and family violence and it's now open for review

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Speaker 1: with the Domestic Family Violence Exposure Draft Bill now online.

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Speaker 1: The government says the Justice Legislation Domestic Family Violence Bill modernizers,

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Speaker 1: restructures and strengthens the Domestic and Family Violence Act of

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Speaker 1: two thousand and seven to bring it in line with

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Speaker 1: best practices and address inconsistencies in the current Act. Now

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Speaker 1: joining me on the line to talk a little bit

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Speaker 1: more about this review and well the various areas that

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Speaker 1: we may need some further looking into. From the top end.

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Speaker 1: Women's Legal US CEO Caitlin Weatherbee Fell, good morning to you, Caitlin.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning. Caitlyn.

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Speaker 1: Obviously it seems like this is a step in the

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Speaker 1: right direction. With the Domestic and Family Violence Exposure Draft

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Speaker 1: Bill now open for comment, have you had much of

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Speaker 1: an opportunity to have a look at exactly what the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory government's proposing.

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Speaker 2: No, not as yet. We've just the Sector has just

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Speaker 2: received a copy of the bill which is eighty two

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Speaker 2: pages this morning just before eight o'clock. So looking forward

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Speaker 2: to making some time to go in depth on the

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Speaker 2: Exposure Draft and certainly welcoming the nearly two and a

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Speaker 2: half months turn around time for the discussion papering for feedback.

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Speaker 1: So quite a bit of time to be able to

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Speaker 1: provide that feedback and really go through it all, get

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Speaker 1: through the the nuts and bolts of everything, because this

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Speaker 1: is an area where we need to get it right,

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Speaker 1: isn't it. Oh?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, Domestic and family violence is across the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: every year for nearly I think three years. The unfortunately

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Speaker 2: the Territory has warned the Crown under the ABS statistics

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Speaker 2: for the highest rates of domestic, family and sexual violence.

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Speaker 2: So the legislative supports around their fe are just so

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Speaker 2: critical to ensuring that particularly women and their children are

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Speaker 2: faith Now one of.

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Speaker 1: The areas well, there's four areas by the look of

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Speaker 1: things where they have said that the key features of

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Speaker 1: the bill are they include measures to address the misidentification

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Speaker 1: of parties, greater and stronger protection for victim survivors, as

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Speaker 1: well as greater and more consistent offender accountability, and improve

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Speaker 1: clarity and scope for courts and police powers. Caitlin, from

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Speaker 1: your perspective with the top end women's Legal Service, you

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Speaker 1: know how important and taking a look at those different

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Speaker 1: sort of areas that they've touched upon, where do you

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Speaker 1: think we need to see some change? So what does

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Speaker 1: need to happen here?

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Speaker 2: There absolutely needs to be greater and stronger protection for

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Speaker 2: victim survivors, Katie. Currently women and their children are often

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Speaker 2: involved in proceedings where there may not be the correct

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Speaker 2: provisions in place for a domestic violence order, or where

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Speaker 2: there's not been adequate information provided to the court during

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Speaker 2: that problem. And certainly all of those four things actually

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Speaker 2: interrelate to each other. So in respective misidentification of parties,

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Speaker 2: we commonly at Women's Legal Service will see a misidentification

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Speaker 2: of the primary aggressor and so police may attend upon

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Speaker 2: a situation you will have an incredibly heightened I'll take

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Speaker 2: into it I'll give the example here of a female

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Speaker 2: and a male relationship, and noting that in terms of

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Speaker 2: intimate partner violence, women are disproportionately impacted in terms of

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Speaker 2: those experiences. But you'll have police attends. They'll attend upon

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Speaker 2: a really heightened woman who is experiencing trauma, and because

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Speaker 2: of that trauma, they say, oh, okay, this must be

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Speaker 2: the person who's perpetrated the violence. She's the one who's tightened.

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Speaker 2: She's the one kind of, you know, really distressed. It

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Speaker 2: must have been her. And so these will certainly the

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Speaker 2: changes that were up for response by the sector late

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Speaker 2: last year. Our response was great. There needs to be

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Speaker 2: really clear provisions, clear guidance within legislation to the judiciary

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Speaker 2: around being able to make sure, okay, so who here

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Speaker 2: is actually the primary aggressor instead of having a situation

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Speaker 2: where you have two parties and the easiest outcome is

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Speaker 2: for both parties to just have a DEDO respectively. That's

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Speaker 2: not right. It's not right that a woman should be

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Speaker 2: subject to a domestic violence order if she is the victim, survivor.

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Speaker 1: Caitlin will there be other areas where you will certainly

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Speaker 1: be advocating for or pushing for some change.

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Speaker 2: We really welcome the inclusion of police certificates, which is

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Speaker 2: around there being additional information to hand for the court

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Speaker 2: and certainly around being to or informed for persons involved

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Speaker 2: in domestic family sexual violence proceedings in not having to

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Speaker 2: relay and replay their history. We're also really welcoming coercive

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Speaker 2: control not being criminalized in the Northern Territory, which is

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Speaker 2: something that is really debate across the country. But certainly

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Speaker 2: the evidence before the territory is that if we were

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Speaker 2: to criminalized course of control currently it would disproportionately impact

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Speaker 2: women and particularly aborage andal entorest straight Islander women in

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Speaker 2: terms of the misidentification, and so really welcome coercive control

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Speaker 2: being included as a definition in the Act but not

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Speaker 2: being criminalized.

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Speaker 1: Are you able to just explain that a little bit

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Speaker 1: further for our listeners, So maybe don't understand just what

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Speaker 1: that means. Yeah? Sure.

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Speaker 2: So across Australia there's debate with respect to coercive control,

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Speaker 2: criminalization and of control is around the overarching impact of

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Speaker 2: domestic and family violence, around all those other things that

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Speaker 2: aren't physical violence, that isn't emotional or financial violence, but

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Speaker 2: things over a pattern of time, and so across the

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Speaker 2: country there's debate around do we criminalize coercive control or

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Speaker 2: do we just say it part of DV and in

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Speaker 2: the territory, particularly because of the nature of violence and

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Speaker 2: the high levels of violence, and certainly in terms of

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Speaker 2: our first responders currently the system unfortunately isn't getting it

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Speaker 2: right and so to introduce a new criminal component, the

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Speaker 2: research currently tells us that will disproportionately impact women who

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Speaker 2: are the primary victim survivors, and so to include it

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Speaker 2: only in terms of definitions of domestic violence is the

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Speaker 2: best way to go, as well as to absolutely make

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Speaker 2: concerted efforts to increase support and training for frontline service

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Speaker 2: provider including police and health, so that we're making sure

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Speaker 2: that we're giving support to people who need it.

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Speaker 1: Well, Caitlyn, it does sound like there is quite a

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Speaker 1: bit of quite a bit of work that is going

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Speaker 1: to happen before this legislation passes through the Northern Territory Parliament,

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Speaker 1: and it is always a good thing to have that consultation.

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Speaker 1: So no doubt, I'm sure you'll be going through. Did

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Speaker 1: you say it was those eighty two pages? It's quite

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Speaker 1: a bit of detail to.

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Speaker 2: Get through, Yes, yes, it is that looking forward to

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Speaker 2: getting into the nitty gritty. Certainly making time for it

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Speaker 2: is always really troublesome considering that most frontline specialist BFFB

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Speaker 2: providers don't receive specialist funding for things like policies. But

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Speaker 2: this is the type of consultation that has real impacts

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Speaker 2: on the community and our client base. So something will

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Speaker 2: be making the time to go through really well, providing

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Speaker 2: that response ahead of the all guest turnaround.

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Speaker 1: And Caitlyn, I guess it is something that we hear

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Speaker 1: so often about our high rates of domestic violence here

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory. I've no doubt that the top

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Speaker 1: end women's legal service that you guys, you know, you

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Speaker 1: see this all too often and it does seem as

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Speaker 1: though we need to really do some serious work to

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Speaker 1: try to minimize what we are experiencing.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely we do, and that's a whole of community response.

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Speaker 2: And the Northern Territory Government has just released their action

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Speaker 2: plan too for consultation, and certainly there's a Commonwealth Government's

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Speaker 2: National Plan which speaks to that DFFB is a community issue,

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Speaker 2: not just in our homes issue, but part of those

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Speaker 2: long term change includes really significant and additional funding for

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Speaker 2: specialist DFFC providers to enhance services. Too often, currently we

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Speaker 2: are turning women away who are seeking help, seeking help

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Speaker 2: to it seems like a domestic vance order because we

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Speaker 2: are simply over capacity. And there is nothing worse, nothing

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Speaker 2: worse for a specialist DFSC service to turn one away.

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Speaker 2: Tom just doing it too frequently.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it'd be a horrible situation to be in having

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Speaker 1: to turn someone away who you know really needs that help.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, and for their clients experience, you know, where

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Speaker 2: does she go? Because there are specialist services who have

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Speaker 2: staff who are trained to provide trauma informed and culturally

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Speaker 2: secure services. If they're not available, where does she go?

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Speaker 2: And the answer is nowhere. She's kind of stuck in

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Speaker 2: this limbo system and really, you know that can be

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Speaker 2: involved in a court process where there could be systems abuse,

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Speaker 2: a court process that's initiated by the perpetrator of violence,

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Speaker 2: where she's unable to access legal health because those legal

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Speaker 2: services are just.

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Speaker 1: Under the pump well top end Women's Legal Service CEO,

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Speaker 1: Caitlin Weatherbee Fell I really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for taking the time to have

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Speaker 1: a chat with us. I understand as you've touched on,

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Speaker 1: you know, you have really just had that meeting with

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Speaker 1: the ministers, so we appreciate you coming on and explain

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Speaker 1: this all little bit more to us.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Katie, thank you