13/05/2026
NATSIWA’s initial response to the Federal Budget.
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.
