Law reform

We are committed to building a better justice system for all Victorians.

The Legal Aid Act 1978 requires us to take innovative steps to reduce the need for our individual legal services. One way we achieve this is by pursuing improvements in law and policy that result in better outcomes for our clients and the community, as detailed in our Outcomes Framework.

Our strategic advocacy priorities

These principles guide our strategic advocacy:

1. Self-determination – As part of our ongoing commitment to upholding First Nations peoples’ right to self-determination, we will be led by the expertise of, and work collaboratively with Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, stakeholders and First Nations communities to inform our advocacy and reform work, and support truth-telling and Treaty processes in Victoria.
2. Lived experience – Our advocacy is shaped by the experiences and expertise of people directly affected by laws, policies and systems.
3. Intersectionality – We recognise that different aspects of identity – including race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, mental health issues, neurodiversity, age, migration and socioeconomic status – intersect to affect a person’s experiences ofdiscrimination and inequity.
4. Anti-discrimination – We acknowledge and challenge discrimination, and systemic and structural racism, with a focus on anti-racism and working with marginalised and minority communities to improve access to justice and build fairer laws and systems.
5. Sharing experience – We proactively amplify client voices and experiences, our practice experience, evidence and data to support evidence-based policy and law reform and to promote greater community understanding of the experiences of our clients in the justice system

Our priorities

We will prioritise advocacy aimed at achieving these improvements in law and policy and better outcomes for clients and the community.

1. Safety for women, gender-diverse people and children – Systemic reform to improve safety for women, gender-diverse people and children, including reducing misidentification of the primary aggressor of family violence.
2. First Nations justice – Implementation of recommendations from the Yoorrook Justice Commission to ensure lasting and systemic change.

3. Children’s contact with the legal system – Promote holistic and diversionary supports and responses to children to prevent contact with the legal system, including through:

   a. providing earlier therapeutic supports to families where children are using violence or behaviours of concern

   b. raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 and the age of imprisonment to 16 without delay

   c. ending the over-criminalisation and the disproportionate representation of First Nations children and children of colour in the youth justice system.

4. Child protection – Reforms to the child protection system embedding children’s rights, improving fairness and supporting families to stay together where it safe and appropriate to do so.
5. Criminal justice system – Reduce involvement in the criminal justice system and minimise the harm it causes to all participants, including through sentencing reform, improving access to therapeutic and culturally appropriate approaches, and embedding restorative justice.
6. Bail reforms – Reforms to the bail system, including: a. addressing the discriminatory and disproportionate impact of the Bail Act 1977 on marginalised groups b. increasing access to bail supports, early intervention and prevention programs.
7. Police and custodial oversight – Promote mechanisms that create greater accountability, transparency, fairness and access to independent police and custodial oversight.

8. Mental health reforms – Mental health reforms that promote consumer rights, embed consumer leadership, self-determined responses and cultural safety, and increase accountability to:

   a. work toward the elimination of compulsory treatment, and seclusion and restrictive practices

   b. address overrepresentation of First Nations consumers.

9. Federal systems – Strengthen rights and accountability across federal systems, with a particular focus on social security, migration, the National Disability Insurance Scheme and human rights and equality reforms.

We may also do strategic advocacy work in response to emerging or urgent systemic issues or to reform processes (such as reviews, commissions, inquiries or legislative change) that are not identified in these priorities.