Actions for the 48th Parliament of Australia
Invest in access to justice for LGBTIQ+ people, people seeking asylum, refugees and vulnerable migrants
The National Access to Justice Partnership (NAJP) 2025-30 is an agreement between the Federal and State and Territory Governments. Under the agreement, the Federal Government provides funds for legal assistance, and State and Territory Governments administer these funds, including by deciding how to allocate funds between community legal centres. The NAJP replaces the National Legal Assistance Partnership (NLAP) 2020-25.
The NAJP lists several new priority groups for legal assistance, including LGBTIQ+ people, and vulnerable migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. The community legal sector has long advocated the inclusion of these groups.
LGBTIQ+ legal services provide specialist legal help in areas like domestic, family and sexual violence, discrimination, identification documentation amendments, and online abuse and doxing. They also provide safe, LGBTIQ+-friendly support for people to resolve a wide range of everyday problems and build the wider sector’s capacity to appropriately support LGBTIQ+ clients. Governments frequently call on them to provide expert input into laws and policies that relate to the LGBTIQ+ community.
Community legal centres work with refugees and asylum seekers, migrant women experiencing domestic and family violence, international students, and migrant workers to provide specialist, culturally responsive support across a range of areas of law. Some centres provide specialised support for people to navigate immigration law problems, which is an area of law that is often very complex and in which many legal practitioners don’t practice. Centres also provide culturally responsive support to refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants in other areas like domestic, family and sexual violence and employment.
Problem:
The final details of the NAJP, including the additional priority groups, were settled after the Federal Government announced its funding commitment to the agreement. But the Federal Government has not provided any additional funding for community legal centres to meet the needs of the new priority groups. In our 2025-26 pre-budget submission, Community Legal Centres Australia reiterated our call on the Federal Government to commit additional funding to enable service delivery to newly added groups. Additional funding has not been delivered.
In four Australian jurisdictions (Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, and Western Australia), LGBTIQ+ people can access a LGBTIQ+ specialist community legal centre or program. These services are very poorly funded, relying on a mix of State Government funding, philanthropic donations, and substantial pro bono support. In four jurisdictions there is no specialist LGBTIQ+ service at all.
Many refugees and people seeking asylum can’t afford private legal help because of government policies that restrict their rights to work and to access social security. Community legal centres are often the only option they can turn to for help. There are refugee specialist community legal centres in every jurisdiction except the Northern Territory. However, funding for these services is generally inadequate to meet community need, and there isn’t consistency in funding quantum delivered by different state and territory governments. Some services rely wholly on state government funding; at least one service has been told by its state government that it will no longer be funded because it works in the federal jurisdiction. Several rely significantly on fundraising to keep their doors open.
Centres that work in areas of federal law (including immigration and employment) are often overlooked by states and territories when allocating NAJP funding, but don’t receive additional federal funding outside the NAJP. Clients are left without, because of buck-passing between federal and state/territory Governments.
Solution:
Deliver additional Commonwealth funding through the National Access to Justice Partnership agreement to enable community legal centres to plan and deliver services to LGBTIQ+ people and to refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants. Ensure new funding acknowledges the expertise of existing services supporting these communities.
Work with states and territories to urgently overcome the historical practice of excluding some centres – especially those working in areas of federal law like immigration and employment – from National Access to Justice Partnership funding.