Integral to our policy and advocacy role is the constructive advice, guidance and direction we provide to government. This page contains the submissions NLA has made to various Commonwealth Government and Parliamentary inquiries.
National Legal Aid is urging the government to include funding for key strategic priorities in the 2026–27 budget to uphold access to justice. These include baseline funding to meet demand in the Federal Circuit and Family Court for victim-survivors of domestic and family violence, ongoing support for the NDIS Appeals Program, and preventing the Permanent Protection Visa Program and disaster response legal services from ending due to funding cliffs.
Australia’s youth justice system is in deepening crisis, with escalating criminalisation and detention causing serious and ongoing harm to children, particularly First Nations children. We call on the Commonwealth to urgently lead coordinated, evidence‑based reform by raising the age of criminal responsibility, ending harmful detention practices, ensuring detention is a last resort, and adequately funding legal assistance to protect children’s rights and futures.
Using consultation with relevant groups and drawing on a wide catalogue of previous research and advice, the submission made three broad recommendations.
- Focus on the Closing the Gap Target 11 - By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people (10-17 years) in detention by at least 30 per cent
- Detention to be a measure of last resort
- Improved operations of the youth justice detention system
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