Federal funding cuts to community legal centres will mean more women stay in abusive relationships, lawyers warned on Thursday.

More than $43m was cut from funding to legal assistance services last December, hitting around 60 centres across Australia, and causing some family violence programs to be scaled down or scrapped.

A Productivity Commission draft report into access to justice was released in April, with hearings currently being held around the country.



Federation of Community Legal Centres executive officer Liana Buchanan, who appeared before the commission on Wednesday, told AAP that free legal advice was essential for women seeking to leave dangerous relationships.



"If legal help is cut off from women who are trying to seek help with family violence, that will absolutely mean that more women will remain in violent, abusive relationships," Buchanan said.



The chief executive of Victoria’s Women’s Legal Centre, Joanna Fletcher, said early legal advice was particularly “critical” in cases of family violence.



“Perpetrators [of family violence] feed the victim a diet of lies about what will happen if they leave,” she said.



“They say, ‘You won’t get the kids, I’ll take them, you won’t get any property because you didn’t make a financial contribution, you just looked after the kids’.



“In fact, none of those things are correct,” she said.



Fletcher said a federal funding cut of as little as 10% could mean around 300 women could miss out on assistance.



The Eastern Community Legal Centre, serving Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, established a new office in Healesville after receiving a grant of $750,000 over four years under the previous Labor government.



“Family violence is our number one issue. Over half of our lawyer’s time is spent on family violence cases,” Michael Smith, the centre’s CEO, said



But the Abbott government has cut the last two years of the grant, leaving a $400,000 hole in the centre’s budget and putting the new office at risk.



The cut was the equivalent of two staff positions and advice for about 20 clients a week, Smith said.



Half a million people around the country already miss out on legal advice, according to the Federation of Community Legal Centres. A further $6m in federal funding cuts are planned for the next four years.



The productivity commission’s final report is due in September.



The federal attorney-general, George Brandis, has been contacted for comment.



• This article was amended on 13 June 2014. The original article referred to cuts to community legal centre funding.