National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Women's Alliance

15/05/2026

The First Nations Women UNLIMITED Summit runs next week.

Sessions like
“Leading with responsibility, not just authority” Jana Stewart and “Changing systems, not just succeeding within them” Wendy Anders
aren’t theoretical.

They’re grounded in lived experience.

If this is relevant to your role or your team
this is the final point to act.

After this, the window closes.

Anna Kinsella | Fergal Q. | Zonovia Borkar | Max Jules | National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (NATSIWA) | The Hatchery (Hub)

This is it. The First Nations Women UNLIMITED Summit runs next week. Sessions like “Leading with responsibility, not just authority” Jana Stewart and “Changing systems, not just succeeding within them” Wendy Anders aren’t theoretical. They’re grounded in lived experience. If this is rele...

14/05/2026

Close the gap on ACCO Housing: The country’s Commission for First Peoples’ Children has called on state, territory and federal governments to deliver both immediate and long-term funding for Aboriginal community-controlled housing.

The comments come in the wake of two Indigenous children's deaths within a week: five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, and an infant born at a homeless camp in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.

The two tragedies and the context surrounding them have sparked renewed calls for greater accountability over the safety of town camps in the NT, many of which experience significant levels of poverty.

In a statement on Friday, National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People Sue-Anne Hunter called for immediate investment in safe and secure housing delivered through Aboriginal community-controlled housing organisations across the country.

She also called for direct, long-term funding — before crisis and before removal — to allow Aboriginal community-controlled organisations to lead family support, healing programs and wraparound care for First Nations families.

Click on the National Indigenous Times article to read full article

https://nit.com.au/11-05-2026/24188/urgent-national-response-needed-to-protect-indigenous-women-and-children

Australian Human Rights Commission
NACCHO Aboriginal Health Australia
Katie Kiss - Social Justice Commissioner
Coalition of Peaks
NATSILS - National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services
SNAICC-National Voice for our Children

14/05/2026

Katie Kiss - Social Justice Commissioner Close the Gap on emergency accommodation

National data has exposed deep inequities in access to support for victim-survivors of family and domestic violence, highlighting the disproportionate impact on First Nations communities, and how many are being left without a safe place to go or effective way to call for help.

The new data, released this month to coincide with Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month, showed that while nearly one in four (24.3 per cent) Australians escaping family and domestic violence in 2025 were unable to access the accommodation they needed, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the percentage was significantly higher at 41.66 per cent.

The data also showed more than 117,000 people sought homelessness support last year.

First Nations women are 26 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family and domestic violence than non-Indigenous Australians. At the same time, it's estimated that around 90 per cent of violence against First Nations women goes unreported, pointing to systemic barriers, fear, and lack of access to culturally safe support.

Tanya Frazer, Manager for Youth and Communities at IFYS (Integrated Family and Youth Service) Maroochydore, said addressing "structural drivers of violence", such as poverty and housing equality, is "essential to tackling domestic and family violence".

Click on the National Indigenous Times link to read full article

https://nit.com.au/13-05-2026/24258/more-than-40-per-cent-of-indigenous-victim-survivors-of-domestic-and-family-violence-unable-to-access-emergency-accommodation

NACCHO Aboriginal Health Australia
Coalition of Peaks
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy - Northern Territory
SNAICC-National Voice for our Children
NATSILS - National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services
Commission for First Peoples’ Children
Australian Human Rights Commission
13 Yarn
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service - VALS
Djirra
Antoinette Braybrook

13/05/2026

13/05/2026

Federal Budget 2026-2027

The Chair of NATSIWA attended the 2025/26 Budget lockout and welcomes the commitment to the Our Ways Strong Ways- Our Voices. The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Plan to End Family and Domestic and Sexual Violence with $218.3 million to begin the implementation of the program. It is imperative that this funding is allocated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-controlled organisations to ensure this funding can enact real change for our communities.

NATSIWA supports the funding for infrastructure upgrades for Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services and celebrates the commitment made to expand the successful Birthing On Country Programs.

Our Chair also acknowledges the commitments made by the Federal Government to increasing food security and the expansion of the Remote Jobs and Economic.

Development program in this budget, but it must also commit to improving the overall wellbeing of our remote communities. Therefore, it is disappointing that no funds were
invested in delivering the recommendations of The Bringing Them Home Report and Deaths in Custody Royal Commission. Without these recommendations being addressed, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, children and communities will continue to be disadvantaged by the intergenerational trauma colonisation
caused.

The Federal budget measures to reduce the government spending on NDIS through the introduction of Thriving Kids and the development of Foundational Supports must be developed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities, and these programs need to ensure they are culturally safe, responsive and accessible for communities that live in regional and remote communities.

The Chair also calls on the government to ensure any assessment tool and frameworks for NDIS accessibility are fit for purpose for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and must consider language, cultural ways of knowing, being and doing. The Federal Government must ensure they include Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander voices at all stages of these changes from initial discussions, positions on working groups and technical advisory groups through to design and delivery of this model.

12/05/2026

The National Rural Women's Coalition with Women with Disabilities Australia and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Alliance preparing to enter the Budget Lock-up. The NRWC will be releasing information on the Budget over the next couple of days. We are keen to understand how this budget will impact women and their families living in rural, regional, remote and very remote Australia.

07/05/2026

SNAICC - National Voice for our Children has called for an immediate investigation into the leaking of confidential information relating to child protection notifications involving Kumanjayi Little Ba...