Evidence & Advocacy

Parliamentary Submissions

NLEC works with people whose lived experience crosses connected systems, including justice and corrections, housing and homelessness, family violence, disability, health, mental health, alcohol and other drugs, children and families, and social security—especially where responsibility fragments across portfolio and jurisdictional boundaries. NLEC contributes its own evidence and policy positions to parliamentary inquiries on issues across these systems.

NLEC transforms lived-experience evidence into intelligence for policy, reform and accountability. Submissions reflect NLEC’s analysis and the sources identified in each record; they do not presume consensus or represent every person affected. Read the mandate and representation model.

Featured Submission

Standing Submission

June 2026

Read the NDIS Submission

Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme

Inquiry: Annual Report No. 2 of the 48th Parliament

Embedding Lived Experience Intelligence in NDIS Governance, Performance, Safeguards and Accountability

NLEC submits that the NDIS should not be assessed only through expenditure, participant numbers, administrative compliance, actuarial metrics or provider-market outputs. It must also be assessed through lived-experience evidence of whether the scheme is accessible, safe, dignified, trauma-informed, culturally responsive, regionally equitable and capable of preventing institutional harm.

Key Themes

NDIS governance and accountability
Participant access and administrative harm
Safeguarding gaps and provider misconduct
Thin markets and regional inequity
Psychosocial disability and complex needs
Children, families and early intervention
First Nations and culturally responsive service design
Structured lived-experience intelligence
Independent evidence collection
Co-design standards and public accountability

Recommendations Summary

NLEC makes ten recommendations including a formal lived-experience intelligence function in NDIS oversight, annual reporting on participant harm and administrative harm, national lived-experience evidence collection, stronger regional evidence mechanisms, improved transparency around complaints and enforcement, and safeguards to ensure NDIS reform does not shift people into unsupported poverty or institutional settings.

All Submissions

Senate Submission

June 2026

Senate Community Affairs References Committee

Inquiry: Support at Home Program

Lived Experience, Dignity and System Design in the Support at Home Program

NLEC submits that the Support at Home Program should not be assessed only as an aged-care funding model — it is a national care-system redesign with profound implications for older people, people with disability, informal carers, First Nations peoples, and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Using its National Co-Design Standards Framework, NLEC assesses that the Program's development process has not yet met the standards of genuine co-design and makes eight recommendations to the Committee.

Key Themes

Co-payment design and hardship protectionThin markets and rural service accessInformal carers and carer burdenFirst Nations and cultural safetyNDIS–aged care interfaceLived experience governanceIndependent lived experience monitoringGenuine co-design standards

Recommendations Summary

NLEC makes eight recommendations: proactive hardship identification and protection; market stewardship and provider-of-last-resort; carer impact assessment and support integration; First Nations self-determination and cultural safety; NDIS-aged care interface resolution; a permanent lived experience governance mechanism; independent lived experience monitoring; and genuine co-design before full implementation.

Read the Support at Home Submission

Senate Submission

17 June 2026

Senate Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Data Centres

Inquiry: Artificial Intelligence and Data Centres

Human, Community and Public-Interest Safeguards in Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Policy

NLEC submits that artificial intelligence and data centre policy must include human, community and public-interest safeguards. The submission focuses on AI in government services, digital exclusion, automated decision-making, community and environmental impacts of data centre development, and the need for lived-experience impact assessment.

Key Themes

AI in government servicesAutomated decision-making and systemic harmRobodebt lessons for AI governanceAI use in NDIS administrationAI in mental health and crisis servicesDigital exclusion and vulnerable communitiesData centre community and environmental impactsLived-experience impact assessmentNon-digital service pathwaysNational AI harm monitoring

Recommendations Summary

NLEC makes six recommendations: mandatory lived-experience impact assessment, protection of non-digital service pathways, prohibition of fully automated adverse decisions in essential services, transparency and accountability for government AI systems, community benefit obligations for data centre development, and a national AI harm monitoring function.

Read the AI and Data Centres Submission

Supplementary Evidence

June 2026

Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee

Inquiry: Australia's Youth Justice and Incarceration System

Lived Experience, Trauma and Systemic Failure in Australia's Youth Justice System

This supplementary submission expands NLEC's evidence and reform position in relation to young people, lived experience, and service-system harm. It addresses the intersection of youth justice with disability and neurodivergence, the care-to-custody pipeline, First Nations over-representation, and the standards required for genuine co-design of youth justice reform.

Key Themes

Young people and lived experienceDisability and neurodivergence in youth justiceFirst Nations over-representationCare-to-custody pipelineEarly intervention and preventionYouth service-system harmFamily, carer and community impactsGenuine co-design with young peopleNational minimum age of criminal responsibilityIndependent lived experience monitoring

Recommendations Summary

NLEC makes six recommendations including mandatory disability screening at first contact with the youth justice system, legislative measures to address the care-to-custody pipeline, First Nations self-determination in justice design, genuine co-design with young people with lived experience, a national minimum age of criminal responsibility of at least 14 years, and an independent lived experience monitoring function for youth justice.

Read the Youth Justice Supplementary Evidence

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Engage NLEC for evidence, submissions and reform advice

NLEC is available to provide lived-experience evidence, stakeholder consultation, co-design standards, advisory support, public debate contributions and parliamentary submission development across national reform areas.

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