National Regional, Rural, Remote and Very Remote Community Legal Network (4Rs Network)
About the network
The 4Rs Network is a network of non-profit legal services in 4Rs areas which provide legal and related assistance via an incorporated non-profit structure or auspicing arrangement.
The 4Rs Network’s services are based in and/or service localities within four of the five classes of remoteness including:
- Inner regional Australia
- Outer regional Australia
- Remote Australia
- Very remote Australia
The 4Rs Network members work with and for their communities and regions. Their methods and programs often reflect deep understanding and long-term efforts to address important community needs. Their programs, services and advocacy often reflect involvement in community issues that have not been addressed by other means, including by local, state, or federal governments.
The 4Rs Network builds on a significant history of community legal centre-based networking from the mid 1990s seeking to address the specific and nuanced legal needs and rights of regional, rural, remote and very remote communities and thereby increase the wellbeing those living within them.
The 4Rs Network is convened by Judy Harrison and Cheryll Rosales and meets by Zoom on the first Wednesday of each month; supporters are encouraged to join, connect and assist. You can contact the convenors via info@clcs.org.au.
The 4Rs Network will meet in person on 2 September 2025 as part of National Community Legal Centres Conference 2025.
Inclusion of submissions on this page does not indicate endorsement by Community Legal Centres Australia. Where the national peak endorses a submission, this will be indicated within the individual submission being endorsed.
Submissions
NGO Coalition report to Australia’s fourth Universal Periodic Review
July 2025
Between February and July 2025, the 4Rs Network contributed to the NGO Coalition Report to Australia’s fourth Universal Periodic Review by the United Nations Human Rights Committee. The 4Rs Network endorsed the final report.
The report’s intersectional lens expressed recognition that “human rights are interdependent and indivisible and that violations are compounded for people and communities that experience systematic exclusion or oppression based on factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, disability, LGBTQIA+ identity or geographic location”. Recommendations included that “Australia must deliver needs-based funding, planning and initiatives for geographically comprehensive access to legal assistance”.
Children’s right to access to justice and to an effective remedy
July 2025
The 4Rs Network contributed to and endorsed the submission by the Australian Children’s Rights Taskforce to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child consultation on Draft general comment 27 on children’s right to access to justice and to an effective remedy.
The taskforce submission emphasised the need to “rigorously affirm the right of each child to access to justice where they live, including children in remote and rural areas and challenging settings”.
National legal assistance workforce planning
June 2025
The National Access to Justice Partnership (NAJP) started on 1 July 2025, superseding the previous agreement, the National Legal Assistance Partnership 2020–2025 (NLAP). The NJAP, an agreement between the Commonwealth and all states and territories, commits to developing a National Legal Assistance Workforce Strategy (cl. 88-91), to address recruitment and retention actions, particularly in regional and remote areas, pay disparities, sustainable service sector growth, quality culturally-safe services and alignment with the National Justice Sector Strengthening Plan under development by the Justice Policy Partnership and other relevant initiatives.
See below for the full 4Rs response to the Independent Review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership 2020-25, conducted in 2024.
The 4Rs Network has also made a submission as part of the Workforce Strategy development process.
EJA’s Social security for women outside our cities
May 2025
The launch of part one of Economic Justice Australia’s Social security for women outside our cities report at Darwin Community Legal Service on 1 May 2025 and online on 15 May 2025 marked a major step forward in research demonstrating social security problems in 4Rs areas including the nature, extent and effects of unmet social security legal need.
Cashless welfare card rebadged
April 2025
Rick Morton’s article on 19 April 2025 in The Saturday Paper, Flawed cashless welfare cards rebadged outlined wide-ranging concerns about the continuation of large-scale compulsory income management in the Northern Territory. Concerns expressed by the 4Rs Network were included, reflecting issues raised in previous 4Rs Network parliamentary submissions.
Pre-budget submission 2025–26
January 2025
All legal assistance sector peaks are continuing to emphasise chronic gaps in access to legal assistance in regional, rural, remote and very remote areas. The 4Rs Network federal pre-budget submission focuses on two areas. First, the need for far greater federal policy momentum and focus in relation to access to justice and 4Rs areas. Second, specific initiatives which include funding to correspond with service delivery costs and needs, 4Rs workforce development and other priorities.
4Rs Legal Assistance Report Card – Guiding and assessing progress
November 2024
In September 2024 the 4Rs Network wrote to all Attorneys-General about funding and other changes for proper access to legal assistance services in 4Rs areas. This should be reflected in immediate improvements and inclusion in the next national agreement to replace the National Legal Assistance Partnership Agreement before 1 July 2025.4Rs Legal Assistance Report Card
The 4Rs Legal Assistance Report Card and a backgrounder were included in the letter. The Report Card is a one-page summary of what progress will look like.
You can use and promote the Report Card. Organisations and networks can also publicly endorse by emailing the 4Rs Network, 4rscommunitylegalnetwork@gmail.com. Many organisations have already endorsed the Report Card
Northern Australia Workforce Development
November 2024
The 4Rs submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia Inquiry into Northern Australia Workforce Development has been published by the Committee, as submission No. 83. The submission relates to legal assistance workforce development in Northern Australia and outlines why many specific initiatives are needed, including roles and opportunities for stakeholders and collaborators in the rest of Australia (‘ROA’).
Independent review of the Human Rights Act (QLD)
June 2024
The 4Rs Network submission to Queensland’s Independent review of the Human Rights Act related to the part of the terms of reference which require consideration of “whether additional human rights should be considered as human rights under the Act”. The 4Rs submission urged visible inclusion of the human rights of people in regional, rural, remote and very remote areas.
Getting the NDIS Back on Track Bill
May 2024
The 4Rs submission to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024 inquiry by the Community Affairs Legislation Committee endorsed concerns about the Bill raised by the Disability Advocacy Network Australia and concerns raised by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre’s Explainer.
Human rights and compulsory income management
May 2024
The 4Rs submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry into compulsory income management supported the Economic Justice Australia and Accountable Income Management Network submissions and called for social security legislation to visibly refer to the human rights of First Nations people and people in 4Rs areas.
NDIS standing committee submission
March 2024
The Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme is tasked with inquiring into the implementation of the NDIS. In October 2023 the Committee began an inquiry into NDIS participant experience in rural, regional and remote Australia. This 4Rs Network submission to the inquiry notes that people with disability are highly represented among clients of 4Rs community based legal services, but levels of access to these services is inadequate. The submission called for a range of measures to better respond to the unmet support, advocacy and legal needs of people with disability.
Consensus on addressing unmet legal needs in regional, rural, remote and very remote areas
February 2024
CLCs Australia profiled the 4Rs Network in this piece about consensus relating to unmet legal needs in many submissions to the NLAP Review.
Pre-budget submission 2024–25
January 2024
Recent media coverage has focused on the critical lack of access to lawyers in Alice Springs for Aboriginal people in criminal proceedings because of unfilled positions. But legal workforce problems are not limited to Alice Springs. The issues are much larger, as reflected in the number of unfilled positions in many high needs areas in 4Rs Australia. Lack of a national 4Rs legal workforce plan must be addressed. Staff shortages are occurring against a backdrop of major underfunding of non-profit legal services in 4Rs Australia. The Network has proposed doubling the level of funding to Aboriginal Community-Controlled and other community-based non-profit legal services in 4Rs areas, reflecting the dramatic shortfalls.
Submission to the NLAP review
October 2023
In its submission to the review of NLAP (the principal funding instrument for the community legal sector), the 4Rs Network calls for an Access to Justice Strategy and Action Plan, increased finding and capacity across multiple portfolios to respond to the needs of 4R areas, the elimination of bias against 4R areas in the current NLAP and the establishment of standards for access to legal assistance.
Robodebt Royal Commission submission
February 2023
Despite the scale and impacts of Robodebt and the level of inquiry and analysis, the full legal, social and political geography of Robodebt is yet to be reflected and analysed in 4Rs areas. The Robodebt fiasco demonstrates intense siloing of social security portfolio interests at the ministerial and departmental levels, and highlights the profound lack of social security legal help for people in 4R areas.
Pre-budget submission 2023–24
January 2023
The 4Rs pre-budget submission called for a National 4Rs Access to Justice Strategy and Action Plan, increased funding for community based 4Rs legal services reflecting costs and unmet needs, and a range of other measures.