November 28, 2025 | Katie Wand
On Wednesday, representatives from Victorian community legal centres joined a roundtable event with the Victorian Attorney-General, the Hon Sonya Kilkenny in Melbourne Town Hall.
The roundtable event focussed on the community legal centre’s policy platform, Action for Justice: A Roadmap for Change.
Mel Dye (Southside Justice) gave a presentation showing the critical role that community legal centres play in ensuring that progressive reforms deliver real life impact. Mel used the decriminalisation of sex work as a case study to illustrate how community legal centres operationalise reforms, so that they benefit communities as intended.
Lee Carnie (Youthlaw) and Damian Stock (ARC Justice) spoke about the development of the policy platform. They explained how the document can be used by decision makers like the Attorney-General, to implement 65 evidence-based and achievable recommendations that will make Victoria a fairer, more inclusive and just place.
Nadia Morales (Inner Melbourne Community Legal) and Emily Malone (Justice Connect) represented the Infringements Working Group. They shared powerful stories that illustrated the real-life, impact of infringements on people experiencing disadvantage, and explained how three recommendations from the policy platform (recommendations 5, 6 and 61) could support an infringements system that is fair and proportionate.
Claudia Fatone (Women’s Legal Service Victoria) and Elena Pappas (Law and Advocacy Centre for Women) commended the introduction of the government’s Women’s Safety Package. They highlighted policy platform recommendation 17 that is a further opportunity to strengthen the operation of family violence intervention orders, ensuring that victim survivors are safe and their voices are heard.
Lastly, Jackie Meade (Knowmore) highlighted the growing issue of claim farming – a practice where a third party contacts a victim survivor of institutional childhood sexual abuse or member of the Stolen Generations without consent to coerce them into making a claim, with personal information then on-sold to lawyers. Jackie encouraged the Attorney-General to tap into the resources that community legal centres offer the Victorian Government for developing legislative reform to ban this practice (recommendation 32).
Community legal centres and the Attorney-General also engaged in a Q&A session covering a broad range of topics of joint interest. We thank everyone who attended the event, and particularly the Attorney-General. We look forward to continuing to work together to create positive change in Victoria.
