Calling
For Change
Our
Advocacy
We don’t just represent our clients in the courtroom – we advocate for their rights in parliaments, in the media, and in the community. Here’s how we achieve our vision for change.
Above: Our General Manager, Naomi Lai, spoke out against the government’s abuse of refugee rights at the 2023 Palm Sunday march in Wollongong. Illawarra Mercury-ACM.
WE AMPLIFY
OUR CLIENTS’ VOICES
Our clients’ most powerful tool for securing justice is their own story. We help our clients tell their stories to the media and in the corridors of power, and we help them call for change at parliamentary inquiries and ministerial meetings.
In June 2021, we launched a legal complaint to the United Nations on behalf of our client, Leetona Dungay. Here, our Board member, Larissa Behrendt, speaks out to the press about First Nations deaths in custody alongside Leetona Dungay following the launch of the UN complaint.
WE URGE
GOVERNMENTS TO ACT
Through our formal submissions to parliaments, inquiries, and international bodies, we make bold proposals that are informed by our clients’ experience, and we hold them to account for their commitments.
In April 2023, our Associate Legal Director, Emma Hearne, travelled to Perth to stand with our client, Tamica Mullaley, as she shared her story with federal senators. Tamica called on the Parliament to take urgent action to end the epidemic of violence against First Nations women and children, and she called for greater transparency and accountability in policing.
Case
study
ADVOCATING FOR HEALTH JUSTICE
Above: Our former Board member, Dr Anita Heiss, spoke to the media in March 2019 following the coronial inquest into the death of her cousin, Naomi Williams. Naomi was a young Wiradjuri woman who died at Tumut hospital on 1 January 2016 after receiving discriminatory healthcare.
Our advocacy on health justice is informed by our legal cases against discriminatory healthcare for First Nations people, refugees, and people in prisons.
In 2018, we secured groundbreaking coronial findings that demonstrated an ‘implicit racial bias’ in the medical treatment of Naomi Williams, a Wiradjuri woman from Tumut (NSW) who passed away after receiving negligent care at her local hospital. This was the first time a court has found that racial bias and prejudice in healthcare contributed to the death of a First Nations person.
In 2019, we secured commitment from NSW Government to implement cultural safety reforms in the regional health district where Naomi was treated. In 2020, we put forward a submission to a NSW parliamentary inquiry drawing on the experience of the family of Naomi Williams.
Today, we have scaled-up our advocacy on this priority issue by playing a leading role in the establishment of the Partnership for Justice in Health, an alliance of organisations working to eradicate discrimination in healthcare.
JUSTICE
CHANGE
ACCOUNTABILITY
Take action today to help us secure justice for our clients and systemic change for the community.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR CASES
Discrimination can affect every part of a person’s life. From finding a job or a place to live, to getting healthcare. But speaking up can be difficult. People are often left to make a complaint themselves, while the problems that caused the harm stay the same. That’s why the NSW Law Reform Commission’s review of […]
This article was written by the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) for the National Justice Project. It’s been 35 years since the final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was signed, and many of the recommendations remain relevant and hold the answer to avoidable, tragic deaths. Incarcerated or not, […]
When young people come into contact with the criminal justice system, they should be protected and cared for. But for many children as young as 10 years old, youth detention means being locked away for up to 23 hours a day. Here, they face painful restraints and are denied the education and healthcare they need. […]
In brief: Yoorrook made a number of recommendations for change in Victoria. The Implementing Yoorrook: Policy Pathways for Truth, Justice and Reform project looks at what it would take to put those recommendations into practice, focusing on policing, universities and land justice. Yoorrook was an important process that gave First Nations people in Victoria the […]
Content Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised the following includes the names of First Nations people who have passed away. Strategic litigation creates change. A legal case can be brought not only to seek justice for one person and their family, but also to help prevent others from experiencing the same injustice […]
Content Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised the following includes the names of First Nations people who have passed away. The family of Kumanjayi White have been left with more questions after learning that police chose not to prosecute the officers involved in his death. Kumanjayi White, a 24-year-old Warlpiri man, died […]
The NSW Government has announced a new system for responding to mental health call-outs. Under the model, people experiencing mental health distress who call 000 could be assessed and supported by one of eight dedicated mental health teams, and connected to support and services through a virtual hub. The Government has committed $270 million […]
Content Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised the following includes the names of First Nations people who have passed away. More than a year after the death of 24-year-old Warlpiri man Kumanjayi White, his family has commenced proceedings in the Northern Territory Supreme Court to obtain answers about the decision not to […]
People experiencing a mental health crisis deserve care, not criminalisation. That’s why the National Justice Project and the Alternative First Responders campaign have made a submission to the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission’s community survey on mental health and policing interactions in NSW. Our submission outlines the harms caused by police-led responses to mental health crises […]
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