Skip to main content

The Heads of Agreement for the National Access to Justice Partnership

National Cabinet
  1. The Heads of Agreement (the agreement) for the National Access to Justice Partnership (NAJP) is made between the Commonwealth of Australia (Commonwealth) and the Australian states and territories (states).
  2. This agreement will form the basis for negotiating a new NAJP to replace the National Legal Assistance Partnership (NLAP) with the final details of the Partnership to be settled and signed by Attorneys-General no later than 30 November 2024.

Financial arrangements

  1. The Commonwealth will invest $3.9 billion over 5 years, ongoing, in frontline legal services to be provided through a new 5-year agreement, to be called the National Access to Justice Partnership (NAJP), commencing 1 July 2025.
  2. $3.9 billion consists of the following separate components:
    1. continuation of funding levels for existing programs for the final year of the NLAP, including continuation of the ABS Legal Services Collection
    2. continuation of funding for legal services currently provided outside the NLAP, and to be transitioned under the NAJP:
      1. Leaving Violence Program (Legal assistance component)
      2. Family Violence Prevention Legal Services (FVPLS)
      3. Supplementary Legal Assistance
      4. Indigenous Women’s Program
      5. Elder Abuse Units and Health Justice Units (from 1 July 2026), and
      6. Custody Notification Services
    3. $500 million for the sector, with a focus on supporting frontline service delivery by all parts of the sector
    4. indexation by Wage Cost Index 1 (WCI1)
    5. pay parity adjustments, and
    6. a five-year review of the NAJP.
  3. The states will:
    1. maintain the current level of effort and investment in real terms over the life of the agreement, including for any specific subsector
    2. offer immediate funding certainty to providers within their jurisdiction by a date to be agreed by SCAG, in the form of minimum funding allocations for the 2025-26 financial year

Commonwealth priorities

  1. States will administer NAJP funding in accordance with Commonwealth priorities, which are family law matters, combating gender-based violence against women and children, particularly First Nations women and children, alleviating cost of living pressures such as employment, welfare, housing and financial disputes, Closing the Gap and reducing incarceration rates for First Nations adults and youth.

Governance, transparency and accountability arrangements under the NAJP

  1. States will continue to administer quarantined funding for Legal Aid Commissions (LACs), Community Legal Centres (CLCs), and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS), a new quarantined funding stream for Women’s Legal Services (WLS), and will also administer a new quarantined funding stream for Family Violence Prevention Legal Services (FVPLS).
  2. States are responsible for ensuring NAJP funded organisations uphold accountability as publicly funded organisations and work towards best practice governance standards.
  3. The Commonwealth and states will work together to manage high risk service delivery issues, including the ability for the Commonwealth, in consultation with states, to take direct actions in exceptional circumstances.
  4. States will provide funding certainty where appropriate to providers funded under the NAJP.

Data and workforce

  1. The Commonwealth will fund and states will facilitate the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ legal assistance services collection.
  2. The Legal Assistance Data Strategy will be reviewed and updated over the first year of the NAJP, with a focus on streamlining data collection.
  3. The Commonwealth and states will develop an Outcomes Framework, and a sector Workforce Strategy, in consultation with the sector, and extend the National Strategic Framework for 5 years.
  4. The Commonwealth and states will support and jointly fund a five-year review of the NAJP.
  5. States will continue to provide to the Commonwealth information regarding allocation of NAJP funding by provider and state funding information by subsector.
  6. Reduced fragmentation of funding arrangements will reduce reporting obligations with further changes to reporting obligations to be made after the introduction of the Outcomes Framework.

Closing the Gap

  1. All governments will develop a Closing the Gap Schedule (or similar) in the first two years of the NAJP, in partnership with the Aboriginal community‑controlled sector.