How to help the 52,000 who experienced domestic violence and were turned away

Federal crossbenchers have called for a $174 million funding boost into frontline legal services after a review warned existing resources were failing to meet the needs of vulnerable communities.

It comes as national legal services report a surge in demand for legal assistance due to a steep rise in the cost of living.

Ahead of a meeting of federal, state and territory Attorney-Generals, a group of 28 crossbench MPs and senators wrote to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus asking for an "urgent" increase to the country's legal assistance sector.

The letter asked the government to adopt the findings of a review released in March, which found baseline funding for legal services had been wound back over the past decade.

"The May federal budget allocated only $44.1 million to legal assistance services, with just $15 million of that earmarked for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services sector," it read.

"While this additional funding is helpful, it falls short of meeting what is needed to ensure frontline legal services can continue to operate and meet growing community needs."

The letter is co-signed by the Greens and senators including Lidia Thorpe, David Pocock, Andrew Wilkie, Tammy Tyrrell and Jacqui Lambie.

It urged the government to act on recommendations laid out in a review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership, which said $215.3 million in additional funding was urgently needed to sustain critical legal services.

The letter noted over 52,000 women who experienced domestic violence were turned away from legal services last year due to capacity shortages in the legal services sector.

"The government must urgently match its rhetoric on wanting to end violence against women and children with the funding it will take to actually do this," Senator Pocock said.

"This means filing the funding gaps now for frontline service providers and community legal centres so people in desperate need of help to be safe can get it and not be turned away, as so many are currently."

According to Katherine McKernan, executive director of National Legal Aid, there has been a "huge" increase in women seeking access to domestic violence services, particularly in larger states such as New South Wales.

She said the impacts of rising living costs as well as heightened awareness about gendered violence have contributed to a surge in demand.

"We're in a critical space at the moment in terms of providing commonwealth investment," Ms McKernan said.

CEO of ACT's Legal Aid service Dr John Boersig said current funding levels were insufficient to meet the varied legal assistance needs of people living in the Territory, particularly for households below the poverty line.

Dr Boersig flagged that elder abuse and demand for specialised services for older people had become an emerging issue due to the ageing population.

"The levels of funding aren't sufficient to really address the needs of people in the lowest quintiles and this is a problem because of the cost of litigation and the need for [legal] representation remains crucial," he said.