"I think it's a betrayal of vulnerable women in our communities who are fleeing and escaping family violence situations," Yvette Cehtel, the chief executive of the Women's Legal Service Tasmania told The Canberra Times.

"I feel like that there's been a misrepresentation by the Commonwealth government and that we've been lied to."

In the wake of continuing uproar of the treatment of women in politics and broader life, the federal government sought in May to reapply a gender lens to the budget, reinstating a women's budget statement and significantly increasing spending on childcare, women's health, safety and economic security.

Among the offerings was a provision of $129 million over four years for "increased legal assistance funding to help women access justice".

The budget papers stated the funding would be "directed to women's legal centres, to enable these providers to respond to increasing demand for domestic violence assistance."

The community legal aid sector is chronically underfunded. The budget investment for specific women's centres was welcomed as additional to core funding and urgently needed due to an increase in demand for assistance.

"It was historic," the chief executive of the ACT and Region Women's Legal Centre, Elena Rosenman, told The Canberra Times in hindsight.

"I don't think there's ever been such a radical investment in Women's Legal Centres since they were invented in the 90s by the federal government."

But the nationwide network of 13 specialist women's legal centres say the reality has been very different. The federal government charged the states and territories with distributing the funding and the direction appears to miss the point.

"I've had representations from the [state] department. I've heard from other service providers in the legal assistance sector in Tasmania. They have all been told that there is Commonwealth money available for distribution," Ms Cehtel said.

"And when they've been pressed and asked, 'What commonwealth money'? they have said that the women's budget statement money has been opened up to other legal assistance service providers.

"The only money that they can be talking about is the money that was tagged in the women's budget statement for specialist women's legal centres.

"So I do feel like we've been duped by the commonwealth government and let down."

The Tasmanian centre says it has let one Hobart staff member go in the wake of the funding shortfall and it is reviewing services.

The ACT and Region Women's Legal Centre has also not received the much-needed funding it was expecting. It is reviewing current services.

"What [the Commonwealth] did was say to the states and territories, 'It's up to you to decide where the money goes', and as long as the money goes to a service where the service is provided to a woman, in some way, then that seems like, at the moment, the only caveat they're putting on the funding," Ms Rosenman said.

"The budget papers were black and white around exactly where they wanted the funding to go, but basically they have left it up to states and territories.

"I think the issue for us is this was very specific resourcing that was supposed to come to women's legal centres and now that hasn't happened."

A spokesman for the federal Attorney-General Michaelia Cash told The Canberra Times the $129 million over four years would be "dedicated to providing additional legal assistance in response to continued demand for domestic violence assistance".

"As part of the women's safety package, this funding will boost family law services, and provide more front-line legal and social support for people experiencing domestic and family violence," the spokesman said.

"Ultimately, how this funding is disseminated to legal services is a matter for the states and territories."

The women's centres say the handling of the funding calls into question the government's commitment to women.

"Thousand's of women across Australia said, 'We want them to do better', and on budget night we thought that's what had happened," Ms Rosenman said.

"At the moment, that is not the way we're running our service, we are scaling down our service.

"So, do I feel let down? Yes, I feel let down. I feel like that is money that belongs to women; those are services that belong to women."

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