Policy submissions

Here you’ll find a wide selection of policy papers and submissions we’ve published. Each paper draws on our experience working with disadvantaged youth, families and communities.

Submission to the inquiry into environmental infrastructure in Victoria
- 13 October 2020
Investment in our environmental infrastructure is a crucial element of building more equitable, sustainable, and resilient communities. Jesuit Social Services therefore commends the initiation of this Inquiry into Environmental Infrastructure for Growing Populations, and welcomes the opportunity to respond. The need to safeguard and develop green and open spaces is ever more important in an increasingly…
Submission to Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline in Victoria
- 8 October 2020
As we have seen through the 2019-2020 bushfire crisis, and in the current overlapping health and economic crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, those who are already marginalised suffer the most and this extends to the impacts of biodiversity loss and degradation. Jesuit Social Services welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline in…
Submission to the Northern Territory Government’s Climate Change Response: Towards 2050
- 13 November 2019
Jesuit Social Services welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Northern Territory Government’s draft Climate Change Response. Our comments on the draft response follow our submission to the Government’s initial Climate Change Response Discussion Paper in November last year. The Northern Territory is facing some of Australia’s most extreme climate changes. As we heard at…
Submission to the Inquiry into Tackling Climate Change in Victorian Communities
- 21 October 2019
For organisations concerned with social justice, there is growing recognition that the consequences of harm to the natural environment are felt more acutely by disadvantaged people and communities. A ‘climate impasse’ has typified climate policy in Australia. There has been a lack of bold and strategic action and policies that address the need to transform…
Just Transitions - Expanding the conversation: ecological justice series
- 26 September 2019
This paper is part of an ongoing symposium series exploring Just Transitions and Ecological Justice hosted by Jesuit Social Services in Melbourne, Sydney and the Northern Territory.
Submission to the Northern Territory Government’s consultation on a draft Charter of Victims’ Rights
- 14 March 2019
Jesuit Social Services welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the Northern Territory Government’s new Charter of Victims’ Rights. Jesuit Social Services has been working for over 40 years with people involved in the criminal justice system. Over this time, there has been growing recognition of the needs and rights of victims of crime. Victims…
Submission to the Northern Territory Government’s Climate Change Discussion Paper
- 14 March 2019
Jesuit Social Services welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the development of a Climate Change Strategy for the Northern Territory. As an organisation, Jesuit Social Services recognises the significant and imminent risks that climate change poses to our communities and the natural world. We also recognise that the people least responsible for ecological threats likely…
Ecological justice: Expanding the Conversation
- 15 February 2018
For more than forty years Jesuit Social Services has been committed to building a just society and in 2008 we commenced the journey into understanding the relevance of ecology for the organisation. This paper explores the relevancy and application of ecological justice as a holistic paradigm inclusive of social and environmental justice and seeks to…
Flourishing Communities: Taking lessons from place-based approaches, justice reinvestment and social cohesion
- 17 November 2017
Making Australian communities safer requires something more than the current policies on offer. The ever-increasing amount of money poured into prisons is not making us safer and could be put to much better use. Overlapping lessons drawn from place-based approaches to addressing disadvantage, justice reinvestment and social cohesion strategies reveal the ‘better use’ to which…
Submission to the Inquiry on the Implications of climate change for Australia’s national security
- 16 August 2017
Jesuit Social Services recognises the evidence of the risks that climate changes pose for national and human security and the imperative to take immediate action to mitigate these risks. As an organisation, we have for several years sought to bring an ecological perspective to all our operations, recognising that environmental challenges pose significant risk to…