Taking action on legal assistance in NSW

30 September 2022

The NSW Government has released an Action Plan to guide the state’s legal assistance sector in their crucial work supporting the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged people.

The NSW Legal Assistance Strategy and Action Plan 2022-2025 has been developed with key stakeholders including Legal Aid NSW, the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT and Community Legal Centres NSW.

Attorney General Mark Speakman said the Action Plan reflects the collective approach taken to realise strategic priorities identified by the sector and the NSW government in July 2022.

“The NSW Legal Assistance Strategy and Action Plan 2022-25 is informed by a significant partnership between the NSW government and the legal assistance sector which aims to break the cycle of disadvantage and ensure people in NSW can fully participate and prosper in their communities” Mr Speakman said.

“This Action Plan outlines a whole-of-sector approach ensuring our community’s most vulnerable members have access to justice. It has been developed in recognition of the valuable and crucial work the NSW legal assistance sector contributes to these goals.”

The Action Plan will inform the legal sector’s work over the remaining three years of the State’s current NLAP Agreement with the Australian Government, securing crucial funding for legal assistance in NSW.

Key commitments of the Action Plan include:

• A project to better identify and understand unmet legal need in vulnerable communities across NSW
• Providing responsive and culturally safe legal services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander client
• Supporting the establishment of an Aboriginal Women’s Advisory Network to guide Aboriginal-led and place-based solutions to address domestic and family violence.

The Action Plan has been developed in accordance with the National Legal Assistance Partnership 2020-2025 (NLAP). The NLAP is an agreement between the Australian Government and all states and territories for Commonwealth funded legal assistance. 

Commonwealth Attorney-General, the Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP said: “The legal assistance sector plays a vital role in helping those in greatest need.”

“The Commonwealth Government is committed to supporting the legal assistance sector to deliver access to justice to Australians most in need,” Mr Dreyfus said.

View the NSW Legal Assistance Strategy and Action Plan 2022-2025 here.

Download media release: Taking action on legal assistance in NSW (PDF, 165.1 KB)