The 2025-26 Federal Budget ignores repeated, urgent calls for critical funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, undermining access to justice and perpetuating inequality.
NATSILS MEDIA RELEASE: Australian children under threat as dangerous laws pass in Queensland
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services have condemned the passage of Queensland’s ‘adult crime, adult time’ laws, which will backfire and make communities more dangerous.
NATSILS MEDIA RELEASE: New Queensland laws guarantee permanent harm to our children and more dangerous communities
The dangerous laws introduced in Queensland Parliament last week ignore all evidence about what works to make communities safer and reduce crime.
NATSILS MEDIA RELEASE: Legal experts warn new NT Government’s punitive agenda will backfire and increase crime
The peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services has congratulated the incoming Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro for the Country Liberal Party’s clear victory, but warned that she is already on a path to make crime worse in the Northern Territory.
JOINT MEDIA RELEASE: Condemning the state sanctioned abuse and mass incarceration of First Nations children with disability
In the wake of horrific footage emerging of guards in an adult watch house in QLD violently forcing an Aboriginal child with disability into solitary confinement, The First Peoples Disability Network (FPDN), NATSILS (including QLD ATSILS) and SNAICC call for the end of solitary confinement and the over-incarceration of Aboriginal kids with disability.
NATSILS MEDIA RELEASE: Aboriginal legal services vindicated by government review recommending significant funding increase
After months of sounding the alarm on a funding crisis, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services are vindicated today by the findings of an independent review of the legal assistance sector commissioned by government.
NATSILS MEDIA RELEASE: Budget treats First Nations justice as an afterthought
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services across the country will have to continue getting by on a shoestring after the Federal Budget failed to provide meaningful relief.
NATSILS MEDIA RELEASE: State governments turn away from Closing the Gap and blindly implement failed ‘anti-violence’ strategies that increase violence
Responding to the announcement of a new youth curfew in Alice Springs, continued fearmongering and even threats of a new “intervention”, the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) says state governments around Australia have proven themselves incapable of a basic history lesson.
NATSILS MEDIA RELEASE: Small increase to ATSILS funding will help keep the lights on, but won’t stop all service freezes
Issued in partnership with National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement South Australia, Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (QLD) Ltd, North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, Tasmanian Aboriginal Legal Service, Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.
NATSILS MEDIA RELEASE: Emergency funding needed to prevent imminent service freezes: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services
Issued in partnership with National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement South Australia, Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (QLD) Ltd, North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, Tasmanian Aboriginal Legal Service, Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.