Government
& Civil Society

Why does this matter?

Governments make decisions which affect how South Australians live, but they make the best decisions when informed and scrutinised by a vibrant civil society of engaged citizens. Using key government processes like elections and budgets to raise issues, advocate for policies and hold politicians to account is important for achieving change across the range of policy areas of concern to SACOSS.

What does SACOSS want?

Election promises made – and kept
Elections are the most important time for democracies. It is when political parties formulate their policies, and ask for the endorsement of the community to form government. At these crucial times, SACOSS seeks to ensure that all parties address poverty and injustice in their policy platforms. SACOSS is not aligned with any party or candidate, but we assess political parties on their policies – and then how they deliver against their promises.

Budget measures for all
State and federal budgets are the key expression of government prioriities – not just what they say they care about, but where they are actually putting resources. SACOSS provides submissions to each South Australian state budget highlighting policies on how best to alleviate poverty, including how best to raise the revenue needed for governments to support disadvantaged South Australians. Our submissions are followed by budget analyses which examine where the money is being spent, and what it means in practice.

A strong civil society
SACOSS works with a range of other non-government organisations to guard against the capture of public debate and policy processes by vested interests, and to ensure that civil society can and does play a robust role in public policy debates. This includes:

ensuring political donations and electoral funding is transparent and does not disadvantage new-comers or smaller players
community organisations are given sufficient time to respond to draft laws and policies, and that any new or amended laws and policies follow the required parliamentary law-making procedures
not limiting genuine community advocacy, and
supporting the right to protest and call for change.

Continuing the conversation
SACOSS isn’t only interested in budgets and elections. We meet regularly with relevant state ministers and departments about a range of issues to advocate on behalf of both South Australians experiencing disadvantage and the community sector that delivers services.

Project Title XYZ

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