Advocacy Publications

ACTCOSS has made a submission to the Select Committee on Justice and Community Safety to highlight key issues on the community engagement activities of ACT Policing. ACTCOSS supports a model of policing focused on non-punitive approaches and productive engagement with community organisations and people experiencing disadvantage and targeted by over-policing. ACTCOSS highlights issues including: Over-policing […]

ACTCOSS has made a submission to the Select Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic response on 29 June 2020 calling for additional measures to protect vulnerable Canberrans during the COVID-19 pandemic following the Committee’s Interim report 2 tabled 4 June 2020.

The ACT Council of Social Service fully supports the development of an ACT Child Safe Standards scheme based on lessons learned from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.  ACTCOSS believes there are key issues to consider in the development of this scheme, including community sector resourcing, scope of the scheme, and […]

In this submission to Council of Attorneys-General review of the age of criminal responsibility, ACTCOSS recommends the minimum age be raised from 10 to 14 across all states and territories. A minimum age of 14 aligns with international human rights standards and will ensure children under 14 are no longer criminalised. ACTCOSS recommends that children diverted from the youth justice system are responded to […]

Our submission to the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety on the Human Rights (Workers’ Rights) Amendment Bill 2019 ACTCOSS argued that all Economic, Social and Cultural (ESC) Rights should be included in the ACT Human Rights Act. This would establish a positive obligation on any ACT Government to guarantee ESC rights in policy […]

Submission by ACT Energised Consumers Project Partners: ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS), Care Financial Counselling Service, and Better Renting. ACTCOSS, Care Financial Counselling Service, and Better Renting made a joint submission to the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) in response to their Retail Electricity Price Investigation 2020-24 Draft Report. Our submission welcomed the […]

This report presents the outcomes from a workshop that aimed at assisting Evoenergy in engaging with, and supporting the engagement of, vulnerable energy consumers as part of the development of their next 5-year plan for the gas network in the ACT and Queanbeyan-Palerang region.  Evoenergy is the region’s gas distribution network provider and is required to submit its gas access arrangement proposal for the 2021-26 period to the Australian Energy […]

Our submission in response to the ACT Sustainable Energy Policy 2020-25 Discussion Paper calls on the ACT Government to assess all measures in its next 5-year plan for sustainable energy against criteria for a just transition to zero net greenhouse gas emissions in the ACT by 2045. The submission includes 20 recommendations aimed at building community trust and ensuring a socially […]

This submission responds to the ACT Community Services Directorate’s ‘Strengthening partnerships: commissioning for social impact – discussion paper’. ACTCOSS strongly supports the development of a Commissioning for Social Impact Strategy as a whole-of-government framework that should assist in matching the intent of The Social Compact and other partnership arrangements between the ACT Government and community […]

In ACTCOSS’s submission for the 2020-21 ACT Budget, we outline fifty priorities. Our submission calls for adequate resourcing of community-based, non-government delivered services and responses to meet community need and a changing Canberra. It also seeks fulfillment of ACT Government promises plus community priorities set out in successive Budget submissions since the 2016 election. These […]