LGBTQIA+ Services Hub will give legal advice on criminal, family, civil matters
The New South Wales Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) has announced the first statewide legal service dedicated to LGBTQIA+ matters, to be established through a funding agreement between the federal and state governments and to be run by the Inner City Legal Centre (ICLC).
“The NSW Government is proud to support the establishment of the state’s first dedicated LGBTQIA+ legal service to provide specialist advice and support to the LGBTQIA+ community,” said Michael Daley, NSW attorney general, in the DCJ’s media release.
The DCJ expects the LGBTQIA+ Services Hub to be fully operational by 2027. The ICLC plans to relocate to new premises in the Sydney area, co-located with other LGBTQIA+ services to provide clients with wraparound support.
“With additional support from the City of Sydney, we will be moving to larger premises to accommodate the expansion of the LGBTQIA+ Service and will be proudly displaying all of the colours of our rainbow in that space to welcome in all of the wonderful diversity of our community and its members,” said Katie Green, the ICLC’s chief executive officer.
According to the DCJ, the new service will provide legal advice on specialist criminal, family, and civil matters, as well as support for family, domestic, and sexual violence, workplace discrimination, vilification, and harassment matters.
“We know stigma and discrimination can make it harder for people who are queer or gender diverse to access legal advice and support for sexual, family and domestic violence as well as discrimination and vilification,” Daley said.
The DCJ explained that the new service will aim to tackle a gap in NSW’s existing legal services and decrease barriers to justice for the LGBTQIA+ community.
The DCJ shared that the National Access to Justice Partnership will provide a total of $3.2m – comprising $800,000 per year for four years – to fund the LGBTQIA+ Services Hub.
“We warmly welcome this investment in a specialist LGBTQIA+ Legal Service for NSW, joining Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania in providing safe and culturally informed legal services for our communities,” Green said in the media release.
“I am pleased that Inner City Legal Centre has been one of the successful parties in this tender,” Daley added.
According to the DCJ, the LGBTQIA+ Services Hub will expand the ICLC’s existing services and outreach to the LGBTQIA+ community, with outreach focused on addressing unmet legal need in regional and remote areas.
“This standalone legal service for the LGBTQIA+ community will significantly expand the Inner City Legal Centre’s ability to help vulnerable members of the community access justice,” Daley said in the DCJ’s media release.
Green noted that the ICLC opened on Oxford St, Darlinghurst, in the 1980s.
“From this, we have a long and proud connection with the LGBTQIA+ rights movement that flourished in Sydney during that period,” Green said. “We recognise that the LGBTQIA+ community do not only congregate in the inner city. They live right across NSW and deserve access to justice wherever they are. This investment will see that happen.”
Here are some other recent NSW news stories.
On 9 July 2026, the Law Society of New South Wales urged law firms, practitioners, and the broader community to donate to the Indigenous Solicitors Foundation, whose public launch coincided with the law society’s celebration of the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee Week 2026.
On 2 July 2026, the NSW DCJ announced the appointments of the following judges of the District Court of New South Wales: barristers Jillian Kelton and Adam Williams, to be sworn in on 20 July 2026, and Joanne Palamara, effective 17 July 2026.
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