Community Safety
We seek to ensure that Indigenous Australians grow up and live their lives in a safe home and community.
Indigenous Australians are significantly more likely to experience child abuse and neglect, domestic and other forms of violent crime and be incarcerated than non-Indigenous Australians.
One of the Australian Government’s three priority areas in Indigenous affairs is ensuring communities are safe.
We provide funding for a variety of targeted evidence-based activities to reduce violence and make communities safer.
Under the Government’s Indigenous Advancement Strategy’s Safety and Wellbeing Programme, we focus our efforts on five key outcome areas:
- Reduced substance misuse and harm
- Crime prevention, diversion and rehabilitation
- Violence reduction and victim support
- Safe and functional environments
- Social and emotional wellbeing
We work closely with the state and territory governments—who are responsible for the criminal justice system in Australia—on justice system responses to improving Indigenous community safety. This includes supporting initiatives such as policing in remote locations.