CONTENT WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this email may contain the names and images of First Nations people who are deceased. If you are experiencing distress and are in need of support, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or 13YARN on 13 92 76 for First Nations readers.
Our Projects and Innovation team has had a busy start to this year!
Last month saw the official launch of Hear Me Out with NSW Attorney General Michael Daley praising the AI-powered tool as an important platform to ensure people’s voices are heard and to help make people’s lives better.
We are also proud to be helping Monash Law celebrate 50 years of Clinical Legal Education with the spotlight on supervisors at the Monash Law Clinics including our own Steven Castan who leads the National Justice Project social justice clinic with them.
Students in these social justice clinics are helping Hear Me Out prepare for expansion to Victoria and have also assisted in launching the Alternative First Responders project. Read more below!
CAMPAIGNING | Alternative First Responders online
Thank you to our many supporters who have helped us progress a national campaign calling for alternative first responders instead of police attending to people in a health or social crisis.
We need to re-think the response. Our project draws attention to the need for diversity and community involvement in the first response.
Care comes first, not force.
We are proud to share with you a first look at our new website to help reimagine how we respond to people in need. We ask you to make the pledge to join a national movement demanding safety, dignity and care in every first response.
REPORTING | Our OOHC advocacy
National Justice Project lawyers have contributed to a damning Human Rights Watch report on Western Australia’s child protection system. The report highlights the overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care and the need for First Nations people to be central in decision-making.
REPORTING | WA prison failings
The National Justice Project has helped expose the lack of culturally safe care in a Western Australian prison no longer ‘fit for purpose’. We supported the family of Noongar man Ricky-Lee Cound at the inquest into his death in custody and welcomed the Coroner’s call for urgent reforms.
REPORTING | 1988 mystery continues
The search for truth continues for the family of Gomeroi teenager Mark Anthony Haines as the inquest into his 1988 death is again extended. Further hearings in the coronial inquest will take place later this year and we will continue to support his siblings in their fight for justice.
HOSTING | Innovative panel event
We were delighted to host a special event for our Sydney supporters last month with an ‘Invitation to Innovation’. New Board Chair Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO led a panel of our frontline team members in a discussion about the ways their work is reshaping our fight for justice. Thank you all for your amazing and ongoing support.
HIGHLIGHTING | In the Media
The National Justice Project advocates for our clients in the courts as well as in the news media, especially around issues on human rights, discrimination and justice reform.
Here are some highlights from the past month:
- "New app gives lawyers and consumers tools to kick off complaints" via Law Society Journal, 1 April 2025
- "Four decades of torment after teen’s train track death" via Australian Associated Press, 4 April 2025
SUPPORTING | Our work as a regular giver
April is rich with public holidays and we are glad to note that our regular givers don’t take a holiday from their monthly donations to the National Justice Project. If you have been thinking about giving us a regular donation we’d love for you to become part of our monthly giving program. Every dollar helps us fight for a fairer society.
The National Justice Project is funded by people like you committed to the fight for social justice.
The National Justice Project is a Public Benevolent Institution endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) covered by Item 1 of the table in section 30-15 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. Donations of $2.00 or more are tax deductible.
To keep up to date with our strategic legal action and advocacy, visit our website at justice.org.au or follow us on your preferred social media platform.
MORE:
National Justice Project (NJP)
Address: PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007
Tel: +61 2 9514 4440
We acknowledge that we live and work on the lands of First Nations Peoples, and we pay our respects to their Elders past and present. Our Sydney office is located on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, whose sovereignty was never ceded. This land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.