Local Indigenous policy issues, and what would work

Amend Commonwealth criminal law to set the age at 14 with no carve-outs, as a national floor that states and territories are funded and expected to match.

Raise the age to 14 in every jurisdiction, keep the doli incapax safeguard for older children, and set a later minimum age for detention.

Redirect funds from detention to ACCO-led family support, health, disability and education responses for children who would otherwise be charged.

Co-design indicators with ACCOs (school connection, family wellbeing, contact with police) so communities can show what happens when children are diverted rather than charged.

Restore last-resort and bail-presumption principles for children, and reverse "adult time" sentencing changes that conflict with children's rights.

Redirect funds earmarked for new youth prisons into early intervention, family support and diversion run by Aboriginal community-controlled organisations.

Resource ACCO-run bail support and safe housing so children are not remanded simply because they have nowhere stable to go.

Co-fund multi-year, Aboriginal-led youth programs and mentoring with flexible money that governments can later scale.

Pass Commonwealth legislation giving effect to OPCAT and the Mandela Rules, with enforceable minimum standards for all places of detention.

Every jurisdiction should designate, fund and empower an independent inspection body and adopt the Commission's OPCAT road map.

Prohibit isolation of children and the use of spit hoods in law, with public reporting of any restrictive practice.

Fund Aboriginal community organisations and Elders to visit detained young people and feed observations into independent inspection reports.

Review bail laws so lack of housing or money is not a reason for remand, and fund bail accommodation and support delivered by Aboriginal organisations.

Make Commonwealth funding to states conditional on showing spending is reducing incarceration and building community-based alternatives.

Fund ACCO-led post-release programs covering housing, health, work and reconnection with family and Country.

Use place-based partnerships to coordinate housing, health, disability and education responses for people at highest risk of imprisonment.

Fund First Nations women's legal services and ACCO family violence services to support women before, during and after contact with police and courts.

Train and audit police on primary-aggressor identification, with Aboriginal women's organisations involved in review of cases.

Expand non-custodial sentencing and residential options that let women stay with their children and connected to community.

Support Aboriginal women's organisations to run healing and reintegration programs designed by women with lived experience.

Refer an inquiry to the Australian Law Reform Commission on best-practice police and coronial investigations, national minimum standards and a national investigative mechanism.

Create an independent, culturally safe pathway for families to raise concerns about investigations and to be kept informed.

Require agencies to respond publicly to every coronial recommendation on a custody death and report progress until it is implemented.

Fund Aboriginal organisations to support families through inquests and to lead community responses after a death.

Grant the ministerial exemption or legislative change needed so people in custody can access Medicare services and PBS medicines.

Contract Aboriginal community-controlled health services to deliver primary and mental health care inside prisons and youth detention.

Link people leaving custody to an ACCHO before release, with medicines and appointments in place.

Establish civilian oversight bodies with power to investigate police conduct, including First Nations investigators and culturally safe intake.

Apply the National Anti-Racism Framework to policing through external audits, de-escalation training and published results.

Resource community-controlled night patrols and justice groups as first responders that reduce unnecessary police contact.

Report stops, searches, move-on orders, charges withdrawn and use of force by Indigenous status so communities can test fairness.

Establish and resource an independent function to audit, publicly report on and escalate non-compliance with Royal Commission and justice commitments.

Build justice-target performance requirements and consequences into Commonwealth funding agreements with states.

Give the Closing the Gap Justice Policy Partnership access to audit findings and authority to recommend redirection of funds.

Support communities to publish their own scorecards on local implementation of justice commitments.

Move national justice reinvestment funding from short grants to ten-year, indexed commitments with community control of design.

Co-fund residential healing and alternative-to-custody programs designed by Traditional Owners, with a path to full local management.

Provide multi-year backbone funding for local justice reinvestment teams so they can hold data, convene partners and outlast political cycles.

Give each site shared, community-governed data tools to track local indicators and reinvestment returns.

Repeal laws allowing indefinite detention and provide supported community placements instead.

Fund community-designed screening and diagnosis for FASD and cognitive impairment from early childhood, linked to family support.

Allow NDIS supports to continue in detention and on release so people are not left without help at the most critical time.

Introduce routine disability screening at police custody and prison reception, with health information available to courts.

Direct child protection budgets toward ACCO-led prevention, practical financial and housing support, and intensive family support.

Delegate statutory decision-making and case management for First Nations children to community-controlled agencies, with matching resources.

Independently audit decision-making tools for racial bias and redesign them with First Nations practitioners.

Make Aboriginal family-led decision-making available to every family before removal is considered.

Embed prevention, partnership, placement, participation and connection in child protection law with compliance reporting.

Establish or strengthen dedicated commissioners with powers to audit placements and permanency decisions.

Fund ACCOs to find, assess and support kinship carers on par with foster care allowances.

Ensure every child in care has a cultural plan developed with family and community and reviewed regularly.

Fund ACCO family violence and healing services through multi-year, needs-based agreements under the national family safety plan.

Change child protection practice so the response to family violence is safety support for mother and child, not removal.

Resource men's groups and healing on Country led by Aboriginal men and Elders.

Develop safety indicators with women's groups to fill the national data gap on family violence.

Replace program grants with needs-based, indexed, long-term core funding for ACCHOs, including for workforce and evaluation.

Require hospitals and health services to report on cultural safety and racism using measures set with First Nations health organisations.

Expand Aboriginal health liaison officers and health workers across hospitals and specialist services.

Invest in training pathways from school into nursing, allied health and medicine, delivered with ACCHOs.

Fund community-based dialysis and outreach specialist services, plus patient travel and accommodation that covers carers.

Pair health-hardware repairs and overcrowding reduction with ACCHO screening programs.

Use need-based formulas for regional health funding so non-remote communities with high need are not overlooked.

Train and employ local people as health workers, drivers and practitioners through ACCHOs.

Fund regional, community-controlled suicide prevention and postvention, governed through the social and emotional wellbeing partnership.

Resource cultural camps, healing programs and intergenerational learning on Country as wellbeing infrastructure.

Link everyone leaving hospital after a suicide attempt to an Aboriginal-led aftercare service.

Co-design wellbeing measures that include connection to culture, Country and kin, alongside clinical indicators.

Fund ACCOs and First Nations disability organisations to deliver local planning support, navigation and plain-language information.

Update NDIS guidelines so cultural participation and access to Country can be funded where they support the person's goals.

Include CRPD and UNDRIP tests in compatibility statements for disability laws and policies.

Support Aboriginal-run disability services in thin markets through block or capacity funding.

Provide ongoing, needs-based operational funding to ACCO early learning and family centres instead of time-limited program grants.

Co-locate early learning, maternal and child health, and family support in community-controlled hubs.

Work with ACCOs to interpret AEDC results alongside community measures of cultural strength and family wellbeing.

Fund ACCO-led early years workforce training and governance through long-term partnerships.

Publish suspension and expulsion data by Indigenous status in every jurisdiction and commit to reducing disproportion.

Fund therapeutic staff, Aboriginal education officers and disability support so behaviour is met with help rather than exclusion.

Resource ACCO and Indigenous-led schools and programs for students the mainstream system has not served well.

Require schools to involve family and Aboriginal staff or Elders before any long suspension or exclusion.

Adopt Indigenous-designed, personalised learning in mainstream systems and fund community-controlled education bodies and Indigenous-led schools.

Develop local history and language content with Traditional Owners for every school.

Provide meals, transport and family liaison so children's basic needs do not block learning.

Pay Elders and community educators for their teaching time through school partnerships with local ACCOs.

Commit multi-year funding to culturally safe school-to-career programs that have demonstrated results.

Support ACCO and Indigenous-owned registered training organisations linked to local jobs.

Employers and universities co-design paid cadetships and internships with First Nations organisations.

Follow young people's transitions with consent and community-agreed indicators, not only enrolment counts.

Move First Nations service funding to five-year-plus terms so organisations can offer permanent employment.

Invest in First Nations-run job services and remote employment programs designed with communities, without punitive compliance.

Employers adopt anti-racism plans, recognise and pay for cultural load, and offer fair complaints mechanisms.

Use Indigenous-led survey tools to track racism, inclusion and progression inside organisations.

Strengthen contract management and public reporting on mandatory Indigenous participation requirements, and explain every exemption.

Fund independent evaluation of procurement policy against First Nations employment and business growth.

Create blended finance and investment vehicles governed with First Nations investors to overcome access-to-capital barriers.

Corporates set and publicly report Indigenous procurement targets with verified suppliers.

Adopt definitions that test real ownership, control and community accountability, developed with First Nations peaks.

Introduce monitoring, audits and sanctions for misrepresentation in procurement and grants.

Support community-led verification of organisations claiming to be Aboriginal-controlled, with respect for Stolen Generations experiences of identity.

Work through the First Nations Economic Partnership to create a framework covering fiscal arrangements, land, water, sea and IP rights.

Pool funding into regional First Nations-governed budgets with multi-year flexibility and joint accountability.

Use treaty and settlement processes to provide capital and revenue streams for First Nations institutions.

Support First Nations economic bodies to build their own theory of change, signals of change and baselines so progress is judged on their terms.

Jurisdictions without a stolen wages scheme set one up urgently, co-designed with claimants and their families.

Design schemes that cover full losses, interest and denied benefits, and include descendants of deceased workers.

Fund Aboriginal organisations to help families access archives and lodge claims, as part of truth-telling.

Commit multi-decade funding for new homes and maintenance, shared under a housing policy partnership with First Nations housing bodies.

Transfer management of social housing to Aboriginal community housing organisations with funding for repairs and tenancy support.

Design homes with communities for large families, accessibility and extreme heat, prioritising energy-efficient upgrades.

Fund culturally safe tenancy advocacy to prevent unfair evictions and secure repairs.

Provide ongoing funding for community-controlled shelters, transitional housing and outreach.

Guarantee supported accommodation for people leaving custody, linked to ACCO throughcare.

Adopt Housing First approaches delivered with Aboriginal organisations and wraparound support.

Agree national minimum service standards for water, power and communications in discrete communities, with funding to meet them.

Provide hardship protections for prepaid power and invest in safe drinking water in every community.

Fund local councils and ACCOs to lead infrastructure plans that include climate adaptation.

Resource trained local responders and after-hours health and safety staff in remote communities.

Fund ACCO-run digital access points with trained local mentors to help people with online services.

Guarantee non-digital ways to access government services and flexible identity requirements.

Expand free public Wi-Fi and affordable data in remote communities.

Design community data tools that work offline and accept voice, photo and video so people are not excluded by literacy or connectivity.

Design allocation formulas for First Nations services with communities, using need indicators across all regions.

Provide communities with regional-level data so they can set priorities and test allocations.

Ensure peak bodies and partnership structures include urban and regional community representatives.

Introduce a presumption of continuity, shift the burden of proof to respondents, set aside historical extinguishment in marine parks, count off-footprint and water impacts, and strengthen procedural rights.

Ratify the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention to set binding standards across the native title system.

Establish and resource an advisory group to guide reform of native title and connected laws and their implementation.

Make compliance with future act processes mandatory and enforceable for governments and proponents.

Create an independent fund with government and proponent contributions to guarantee core PBC operations.

Resource PBCs to address division and harm caused by the native title process.

Support PBCs to design governance and dispute processes grounded in cultural authority.

Provide flexible funding for PBC planning, governance and benefit-sharing frameworks.

Amend federal heritage and environment law to guarantee self-determination over significance, FPIC with appeal rights, a ban on gag clauses and real penalties.

Commission, with states, a national project mapping damaged and destroyed heritage as part of truth-telling.

Companies commit to FPIC from project design onward and publish heritage agreements without restrictive clauses.

Fund Traditional Owner rangers and cultural monitors to record and protect sites.

Recognise cultural flows in water law and planning, with allocations held by Traditional Owner entities.

Amend native title law to recognise rights to inland waters and consider water impacts of future acts.

Purchase and transfer water entitlements to First Nations groups for cultural and economic use.

Support community water-health monitoring that combines cultural knowledge and science.

Agree a national approach with native title holders that favours negotiation over litigation and values cultural loss.

Governments set aside funds to settle liabilities in a timely way.

Establish processes for timely access to archives and departmental records needed for claims.

Use a resourced First Peoples advisory group to guide coordinated reform across native title, heritage, environment and land rights.

Resource land councils and set timeframes for deciding long-standing claims.

Fund participation in planning and approvals processes at professional rates.

Expand co-management to genuine shared or Traditional Owner-led decision-making with economic opportunities.

Commit long-term funding for seawalls, relocation planning led by communities and protection of cultural sites.

Give Traditional Owners formal roles in national and regional climate adaptation decisions.

Prioritise First Nations housing in energy-efficient, climate-resilient social housing upgrades.

Expand ranger, fire management and seasonal knowledge programs that strengthen adaptation and transmit knowledge.

Fund community language centres and language workers on ongoing terms, not project grants.

Teach local languages in schools and early learning with Traditional Owner approval and paid language teachers.

Support Elders and young people to learn language together on Country.

Keep recordings and language resources under community ownership with cultural protocols.

Fund cultural authority, nation building, restorative justice and peacemaking, cultural camps and intergenerational learning over the long term.

Align government decision points with Elders, Traditional Owners and community-mandated bodies.

Resource culturally grounded mediation for disputes over identity, representation and resources.

Walk alongside nation-building bodies over years, building learning frameworks they own.

Establish formal reparations where none exist and harmonise schemes around survivor-designed standards.

Fund healing programs designed by survivors and their organisations, including for descendants.

Ensure survivors are not re-institutionalised by giving them priority access to culturally safe, home-based aged care.

Fund link-up and family tracing services led by First Nations organisations.

Establish a representative mechanism with First Peoples, independent of government on the Paris Principles model.

Fund the body from a future-fund style endowment so it is not dependent on annual budgets.

Support state, regional and local representative structures that feed national priorities.

Help representative bodies hold and report community input transparently.

Create a Makarrata Commission with the powers to run national truth-telling and design agreement-making.

Fund public awareness on First Peoples' rights and the ongoing effects of colonisation, run in parallel to the national process.

Fund healing support for participants and communities throughout truth-telling.

Support community-led truth-telling, records research and memorials.

Protect treaty bodies and agreements with legal safeguards that make repeal difficult.

Use the Makarrata Commission to design a national framework supporting state and regional treaties.

Fund nations and communities to prepare, organise and negotiate on equal terms.

Include a duty in a national Human Rights Act requiring meaningful participation and FPIC, grounded in UNDRIP articles 18 and 19.

Require a completed FPIC record and joint risk register before programs affecting First Peoples are approved.

Fund interpreters and independent legal advice for communities in consultations.

Help communities record what they were asked, what they said and how decisions changed.

Fund First Peoples to take part in domestic and international human rights forums on their own terms.

Provide ongoing funding for a network linking advocates and communities.

Support youth human rights training and mentoring led by First Nations organisations.

Implement the Free and Equal recommendations including a Human Rights Act with a participation duty and access to remedies.

Deliver a national human rights education plan for public servants and the community.

Reinstate compatibility statements where removed and limit override powers.

Develop and fund a national plan with First Peoples, aligned with Closing the Gap, with monitoring and reporting.

Require every legislative, policy and program proposal to show alignment with obligations to First Peoples including UNDRIP.

Add UNDRIP to the human rights definition in federal parliamentary scrutiny law.

Embed UNDRIP in governance, partnership protocols and reconciliation plans.

Accept the framework and fund implementation across Commonwealth agencies.

Introduce a positive duty under the Racial Discrimination Act and external institutional audits.

Fund legal help and counselling for people who experience racism, and remove complaint fees.

Businesses, sport bodies and services adopt anti-racism and cultural safety standards with public reporting.

The Communications Minister works with First Nations media, the regulator, the Press Council, the journalists' union and eSafety to create a dedicated code.

Require training on the code for journalists covering youth justice.

Strengthen First Nations-controlled media to tell community stories.

Publish clear, community-endorsed data stories that journalists can use.

Prioritise the long-overdue independent accountability mechanism under the National Agreement.

Give the Commissioner formal observer status in Closing the Gap partnership structures.

Build performance requirements tied to UNDRIP, the Priority Reforms and targets into Commonwealth funding agreements with states.

Respond publicly and on time to Social Justice and inquiry reports, stating which recommendations are accepted, how they will be implemented and how progress will be measured.

Support communities to publish their own scorecards on local Closing the Gap commitments and to track the status of past inquiry recommendations.

Audit Indigenous-specific and mainstream expenditure against Closing the Gap commitments and community priorities.

Produce and table expenditure reports every year with a government response.

Publish spending by region so communities can see what reaches them.

Co-design a framework that replaces short-term grants with needs-based, direct, long-term funding for ACCOs, including evaluation capacity.

Include flexibility, indexation and realistic reporting, and report government's own obligations publicly.

Apply ACCO preference in commissioning as committed under Priority Reform 2.

Fund ACCO core operations, governance and self-led evaluation with flexible multi-year grants.

Implement binding data-sharing and governance agreements that uphold Indigenous data sovereignty, with accountability measures set by communities.

Give communities access to regional data and the capability to use it under Priority Reform 4.

Seek FPIC for data, make data accessible to its owners, allow withdrawal, and protect cultural and intellectual property.

Support communities to adopt their own data governance, such as Kowa's OCCAAARS framework, adapted locally.

Include dedicated resources for community-led monitoring and evaluation in every ACCO funding agreement.

Independently evaluate agencies against the Priority Reforms with communities defining the questions.

Co-create theories of change, logic models and indicators drawn from collective community knowledge, rather than imposing outside frameworks.

Replace short project evaluations with multi-year learning partnerships that employ local people in evaluation roles and leave skills in community.

Fund women-led initiatives and structures that carry forward the women's voices agenda.

Recognise kinship and grandparent care through carer payments and support.

Guarantee women's representation in partnership and representative structures.

Co-design measures that make women's caring and cultural work visible in evaluation.

Fund ACCO-run home and residential aged care that supports ageing on Country.

Create formal roles and paid sitting fees for Elders in local and regional decision-making.

Develop quality-of-life and cultural connection measures for older people with Elders.

Support Elders and young people to share knowledge and spend time on Country together.

Fund community-controlled, affirming wellbeing and peer support led by Sistergirls, Brotherboys and LGBTIQA+ mob.

Train staff to address homophobia and transphobia and make services visibly safe.

Introduce enforceable protections and gender-affirming health care for LGBTIQA+ people in custody.

Collect sexuality and gender data only under community governance and with strong privacy.

Establish funded youth councils with real influence in justice, education and Closing the Gap partnerships.

Fund leadership and human rights training for young people through First Nations organisations.

Back youth-designed cultural, sporting and mentoring programs with multi-year funding.

Train young people as evaluators of the programs that affect them.