We advocate for children’s rights worldwide and partner with local communities and organisations to create community and systems change which enables vulnerable children and young people, in all their diversity, to assert and realise their rights.
Australia should be the safest place in the world to go online, but it is not. Australia’s reliance on self- and co-regulation has played a big part in this failure. ‘Co-regulation’ allows industry to write their own rules and guidelines — self-regulation in all but name — and has consistently failed Australians. This is a live policy debate. Co-regulatory frameworks are currently being developed for children’s online safety and could see Australia continue to fail children online. It recommends that the reliance on co-regulation for the technology sector be replaced by the introduction of proper, regulator-drafted regulation.
Plan International Australia, Childfund, Oaktree and Save the Children Australia, as child and youth focused international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), recommend that the new international development policy incorporates children and young people as a cross-cutting priority. This is in explicit recognition of the rights of the child, and the urgent and unique needs, circumstances and agency of both children and young people, particularly girls and young women.
This should be achieved through both a standalone policy goal that promotes a focus on child and youth individuals, and integrated programming through a life cycle approach.
We stand in solidarity with First Nations peoples in Australia and Indigenous communities globally, recognising the long history of discrimination and the central role of First Nations justice in achieving gender, climate, economic, and racial justice. Guided by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, we acknowledge the leadership of Indigenous children and young people in driving systemic change and commit to deep, active listening and ongoing learning. We call for poverty alleviation—especially for children and youth disproportionately affected by conflict, COVID-19, and climate change—to be the core purpose of Australia’s new international development policy, placing development at the heart of foreign policy and adopting a feminist, intersectional, and First Nations-informed approach.
ChildFund Australia is pleased to submit this pre-budget submission for the 2022-2023 period. In this document we propose 11 areas for investment, to strengthen existing commitments and to maximise impact for children and young people in Australia and across the region.
Will provide critical food, hygiene kits and learning materials in disasters.
Will provide critical food, hygiene kits and learning materials in disasters.
Will supply safe water so children don’t have to fetch and drink polluted water.
Will supply safe water so children don’t have to fetch and drink polluted water.
ChildFund Australia recognises the significance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land; and recognise their continuing connection to the land, water and community. We pay our respect to them and their cultures; and to Elders past and present.
© ChildFund Australia 2025