23/09/2026
SILP are moving to our next phase...
It is time to pick up the baton and drive solutions to serious issues for abuse survivors not just talk about it. It's time to support others driving change in family law and legal systems, Australia, and we are here to help where we can, drawing from our lived expertise. For too long there has been failure after failure to address the issues affecting women and children, and their extended support networks.
These issues have been raised for decades. It's like Groundhog Day! In the Australian Family Law system, decisions can be argued to be “Dickensian.” One member in SILP calls the spin from the court system itself “The Emperor's New Clothes” effect! Responses from the court fail to address the concerns and significant safety issues in 'real' terms. These concerns are minimised, compartmentalised and diminished in a way that meaningful review of the problems is almost impossible.
We at SILP want to help the court, its agents and community identify the weak spots that are unsafe for parents and children — this includes being unsafe physically, emotionally, poor conduct of Federal Child Support service and financial decisions in both the court and systems. It is time for an “upgrade” and time to let survivors drive the change that has to happen.
In 2022 SILP triggered this review documented below as it relates to cross jurisdictional conflict between federal family law and state child protection in NSW! The findings in 2022 reflect what is currently in media -but sadly the response is poor from state CP and federal court leaders!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI7JX9lU-Ww&t=9s
Our history as a lived experience platform...
In March 2021, during the March 4 Justice movement, we gathered five survivors and put their testimony directly in front of two sitting NSW parliamentarians. Within days, it triggered formal parliamentary action. That was the start of Sisters in Law Project.
Since then, our evidence has:
→ Triggered, through lived expertise presentations, a full NSW parliamentary inquiry into the child protection and social services system — focusing on “Cross Jurisdictional Conflict.” Protective parents, despite many state child protection Risk reports identifying protective parents as the “safe” parent, are deemed “unsafe” in family law — while the child protection evidence is never tested.
bit.ly/3URS7C5
The NSW Government and family court took over two years to respond — 18 months later than it was due.
https://bit.ly/3V3oNsj
And media on this in 2022.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=544505007295660
And media in 2026 focusing on the work of family law child survivor Conner Paul.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/pm/family-court-urged-to-listen-to-children/107001644
SILP has been quoted more than 11 times in that inquiry's final report — we were one of only three community organisations invited to give sworn testimony, alongside Domestic Violence NSW and Legal Aid NSW.
→ Permanently catalogued on Policy Commons, the international research database used by the OECD, World Bank and UN
→ Presented directly to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
→ Submitted a 2024 federal submission on Family Violence Orders and other federal inquiries as an unpublishable submission, to protect victim-survivors.
Five years on, we're pushing harder to see that protective parents are not punished by being caught in the 'misalignment' between state child protection and federal systems. Recent media has captured this. We want to see safer outcomes for children who are often silenced in this process.
The cycle of misidenitfying the protective parent as the problem - DARVO -comtinues and still nothing — and I mean nothing — is addressed. This is unacceptable.
In 2022 we relied on lived expertise to use personal experience to identify the same issues seen now - by giving sworn testimony, filing evidence-based submissions, and training advocates to speak with clarity and impact — in family law, and state systems. Quietly pitching questions in state and federal Estimates. Issue are noted and still nothing!
This next chapter for SILP is that we agree with others- Jess Hill, FCAN, articles inthe Herals Sun and Canberra Times, International power brokers in this space like Dr Proudman and Safeand Togethers Institute, US,Canada and France, Italy , Brazil, many others in Europe - and we want to keep pushing for reform. This is an international March for Justice version 2 -
We also want to see the systems address:
1)advocacy for housing,
2)intrafamilial family violence,
3}alternate family law resolution,
4)police supports for survivors in federal courts,
5)managing IT abuse and providing safe technology use processes,
6)child protection supports,
7) AND the need to do better by older women experiencing DSFV .trying to access services when they're vulnerable.
We are about to recommence in March 2027: with some rebranding and the Sisters in Law Project directly supporting services/ domestic and family violence survivors navigating the family law and child protection systems — through direct case support from lived-experience advocates, and through advocacy that pushes for systemic reform at state and federal level. We are not lawyers. We are people who have lived it, working alongside the people living it now.
And as for advocacy....Two years after 15 reform recommendations were handed down from that NSW inquiry, the government's own response confirms only 3 have been fully implemented. The work isn't finished — and neither are we.
We're entering our next chapter with:
→ 🎙️ A new podcast 2027 levelling up the rich learning that comes from lived expertise
→ 🌐 A rebuilt website and case support service
→ 📣 Continued advocacy at state and federal level
If you work in family violence, family law, or funding this kind of work — I'd love to reconnect.
