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SNAICC 2025–26 Pre-budget Submission to the Australian Government

Executive Summary

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and cultures have provided holistic care and support for children and their families for thousands of generations and are imbued with the cultural knowledge and strengths that are essential to supporting young children to thrive.

Despite these strengths, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children experience greater vulnerability than non-Indigenous children as demonstrated by their over-representation in the child protection and youth justice systems and gaps in health and education outcomes. This greater vulnerability has been created by the continuing impacts of colonisation that have caused generations of harm and trauma for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children experience the vulnerabilities that come from being children alongside the vulnerabilities created by colonisation, which compound across the social determinants of health and wellbeing. The promotion and protection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s rights are critical for healing from the ongoing legacy of colonisation and for the continuation of the world’s longest surviving cultures.

Successive governments have committed to addressing these inequities, including recently through the 2020 National Agreement on Closing the Gap. Despite these commitments, the Productivity Commission’s first review of the National Agreement shows that governments are not adequately delivering the changes needed to make a meaningful difference in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life outcomes.

SNAICC calls on the Australian Government to bring to life the commitments they have made through the National Agreement on Closing the Gap by investing in the policy reform, programs and structural change needed to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families to heal and to thrive. SNAICC strongly supports the recent announcements of the Australian Government to advance towards a universal child care system and a number of our proposals reinforce and complement those announcements with a focus on the specific needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and communities. SNAICC also strongly supports the agenda for transformative change to Australia’s child protection system through self-determined policies, programs and services, as set out in Safe and Supported: The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children.

Our proposals complement these partnership initiatives between government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to advance the safety and wellbeing of children. Proposals set out below would also assist to alleviate cost of living pressures felt by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families by increasing service supports for families experiencing financial stress, increasing employment opportunities in education, health and social services, and lowering the cost of early education and care.

SNAICC is calling for the Australian Government to invest in the following initiatives in its upcoming Budget:
  1. Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to thrive in their early years through:
    1. implementation of a dedicated funding model for ACCO integrated early years services
    2. removal of the Child Care Activity Test and increased subsidised access to child care for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
    3. Nest and Nurture Model for new ACCO early years services
    4. SNAICC Early Years Support continuation and expansion
    5. expansion of the Connected Beginnings program
    6. increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early educator workforce
    7. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ECEC workforce development innovation fund
    8. continuing and expanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Playgroups
  2. Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to be safe and well, and connected to their families, communities, cultures, and Country through:
    1. resourcing and implementing Safe and Supported: the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children
    2. National ACCO prevention and early support program funding
    3. implementing Our Ways – Strong Ways – Our Voices: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Plan to End Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence
    4. sustainable, ongoing funding for the Office of the National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People.
Download the full SNAICC 2025–26 Pre-budget Submission below.

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