The National Legal Assistance Partnership (NLAP) is a collaborative agreement between the Australian Government and the States and Territories to provide Commonwealth funding for legal assistance, and is currently being reviewed. This review is an important opportunity to improve access to legal help for people experiencing vulnerability and disadvantage across Australia.
Following extensive consultation with the community legal sector, CLWA made a submission to the NLAP Review – you can click the image below to read the full submission.
Some of the key priorities for CLWA were to ensure that the next NLAP (2025-2030) delivers:
- More legal assistance services for people experiencing vulnerability and disadvantage: Increased investment so that CLCs, FVPLS and Aboriginal Legal Services (ALS) can meet need.
- Funding allocations based on need and on equity principles, reflecting the real costs of providing services, for example to people living in RRRR areas.
- Longer contracts and adequate indexation so services can plan and thrive.
- Wraparound services to help those who need it most, through support for integration, partnerships and innovation.
- Better laws, and increased early intervention and prevention: Increased capacity for CLCs, FVPLS and ALS to make our laws fairer for everyone.
- More community legal education to prevent legal problems from developing, and capacity for services to intervene earlier to stop people’s legal problems becoming worse.
- Better outcomes for Aboriginal people: Additional funding for Aboriginal community-controlled organisations like FVPLS and ALS so that Aboriginal people have better access to culturally safe services and to support progress towards meeting Closing the Gap targets.
- Communities that are better prepared and can respond when disasters occur: Increased investment for more resilient and responsive services to meet the wide range of legal problems caused by disasters.