Vision for Justice
September 2025
Community Legal Centres Australia’s Vision for Justice sets out the common systemic barriers our sector sees preventing the people and communities we work with from accessing justice. Against these barriers, we set out our vision for how things could look if governments and communities worked together to remove them.
The Vision for Justice was launched at Australian Parliament House on 1 September 2025, alongside a complementary set of priority Actions for the 48th Parliament of Australia.
Actions for the 48th Parliament of Australia
About our Vision for Justice
The Community Legal Centres Australia Vision for Justice sets out the common systemic barriers our sector sees preventing the people and communities we work with from accessing justice. Against these barriers, we set out out vision for how things could look if governments and communities worked together to remove them.
Our vision is structured around eight priority themes, determined through analysis of national sector service and client data, and consultation with national sector networks and legal and policy experts.
We recognise that people’s lives and problems don’t often fit neatly within policy themes. In real life, people’s problems get more complicated and harder to resolve the more justice barriers they face at once. A woman seeking safety from violence will have a harder time if she lives in a remote community rather than a city. A renter with physical disability access needs will have a harder time seeking justice from an exploitative landlord than a renter without home accessibility needs.
This vision for justice reflects community legal centres’ work across all jurisdictions and many areas of law, from child protection and criminal law to employment, social security and immigration. It sits alongside and complements the advocacy of state and territory community legal centre peaks and individual centres.
Social and economic justice
All people deserve to have enough income to meet their basic needs, like housing, food, and medical care. All people deserve to be treated fairly and humanely by the legal system and its institutions.
Domestic, family, and sexual violence: prevention, response and healing
All people deserve to live free from the threat or experience of domestic, family, and sexual violence, and other forms of abuse.
Freedom from discrimination
All people deserve equal opportunities to participate in the community and live freely and safely. Tolerance need not extend to actions or words that harm people and groups that experience discrimination and stigma.
Justice where we live
People deserve equitable access to justice and due process wherever they live.
First Nations justice
Sovereignty has never been ceded. We acknowledge the hundreds of First Nations Countries and cultures that have lived on this land for millennia.
Migration justice
All people deserve dignity and safety, no matter their country of origin or visa status.
Human rights and civil liberties
All people, regardless of identity or origin, deserve to live a free and dignified life. Our communities deserve governments that prioritise, protect, and enforce human rights.
Climate justice
Future generations deserve bold leadership from current governments to ensure they can live, safely and healthily, on this planet. Everyone deserves protection from the devastation of climate disasters.
