Justice & Safety
Justice and policing; courts and corrections; youth justice; family, domestic and sexual violence.
Independent National CharityACNC Registered CharityABN 79 919 184 486
People don't live in portfolios.
NLEC works where systems meet.
NLEC is an independent national cross-portfolio lived experience peak body specialising in cross-system evidence, intelligence and reform.
NLEC finds what single-system evidence misses. We focus on issues and failures between portfolios, agencies and services, alongside — not instead of — specialist peak bodies.
Status
Independent National Charity
Focus
Public-Interest Reform
Methodology
Evidence-Based Policy
Objective
Systemic Accountability
How the work connects
NLEC finds what single-system evidence misses.
From lived experience to evidence, intelligence, reform and accountability: explore the functions that connect people’s experiences across public systems to changes institutions can make and track.
Cross-System Lived Experience
The knowledge people develop while navigating multiple systems, their transitions and the gaps between them.
Explore Cross-System Lived Experience →National Evidence Repository
How lived experience evidence is organised, tested and connected to public records.
Explore National Evidence Repository →Cross-System Intelligence
Analysis that connects evidence across portfolio and service-system boundaries.
Explore Cross-System Intelligence →System Intersections
Transition failures, interface failures and accountability gaps that single-system reviews can miss.
Explore System Intersections →National Contributor Network
A pathway for people to contribute expertise to national evidence and reform work.
Explore National Contributor Network →National System Failure Register
The developing framework for documenting and analysing recurring cross-system failures.
Explore National System Failure Register →Cross-System Intelligence Briefs
A structured, evidence-led format for tracing questions, recommendations and institutional responses. Brief No. 1 is forthcoming.
Explore Cross-System Intelligence Briefs →Government & Partnerships
Independent engagement with institutions on evidence, reform and accountability.
Explore Government & Partnerships →From Custody to Home
An investigation focus on reintegration across justice, housing, income support and health systems.
Explore From Custody to Home →Our national remit
NLEC operates where systems intersect.
Government is organised into portfolios, but people experience systems together. NLEC examines problems between departments and agencies, Commonwealth and state responsibilities, service transitions and overlapping eligibility frameworks — where no single portfolio has the whole picture.
Our work spans six connected areas. Health and NDIS evidence are part of this remit, not its defining boundary.
Housing & Economic Security
Housing and homelessness; social security and economic participation.
Children, Families & Institutions
Child protection and family services; residential and institutional care.
Disability & Social Supports
Disability and social supports, including the NDIS and transitions between services.
Health & Recovery
Alcohol and other drugs; health and mental health, considered alongside connected systems.
Cross-System Reform
Other public systems where policy, administration or service delivery materially affects people.
Participation and evidence
Join the national lived experience network
Experience → Evidence → Intelligence → Reform → Accountability
Follow how participation can inform evidence, analysis and reform questions. Publication and institutional responses depend on verified work; the register framework does not yet report outcomes.
For IndividualsJoin free in minutes
Join NLEC - Free
For people with lived experience, family/carer experience, professional experience, research or technical expertise.
- • National membership
- • Policy/reform updates
- • Consultation invitations
- • Eligibility to submit a Contributor EOI
- • Selected member resources
- • Opportunity to be considered for paid commissioned contributor work
Note: Membership is free. Commissioned expertise is paid separately.
Why join now?
Help build a national evidence base before the next wave of submissions, inquiries and consultations.
For OrganisationsDiscuss an institutional partnership
Partner with NLEC
For government, universities, service providers, NGOs, research institutes and other institutions working across public systems.
Institutional engagements are scoped individually and protected by NLEC's editorial independence; they are not sponsorship.
Why partner now?
NLEC provides an independent external layer connecting lived knowledge, research, policy, parliamentary processes and implementation across system boundaries.
Verified Proof Points
Published Evidence
Senate Community Affairs NDIS Future Generations Bill Submission 1129 plus supplements
Published Evidence
Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS Submission 19
Published Evidence
Senate AI/data centres Submission 10
Authorised for Publication
Social Housing submission
Completed
NLEC parliamentary hearing appearance
Published
National Lived Experience Intelligence Report 2026
Published
National Co-Design Standards Framework
Latest Hearing
NLEC gives evidence to the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS
On 11 September 2026, the National Lived Experience Commission appeared before the parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS in Canberra to discuss embedding lived-experience intelligence in governance, performance, safeguards, and accountability.
Hearing Details
Date
11 September 2026
Location
Parliament House, Canberra
NLEC Witnesses
Daniel Vamplew (Executive Director)
Eric Barrett-O'Keefe (NDIS participant / disability advocate)
What We Do
Our Core Priorities
Across public systems, our four capabilities turn lived experience into usable evidence, reform proposals and public accountability.
Operational Intelligence
NLEC's distinctive function is treating lived experience as evidence capable of identifying system defects, risk patterns, policy failures, procedural harm, and reform opportunities across health, justice, housing, and social welfare.
Explore this work →Institutional Reform
We provide independent lived experience evidence and advice for institutions including government departments, courts, health systems, regulators, royal commissions, and parliamentary inquiries — supporting accountability and reform across Australian public systems.
Explore this work →Evidence Publication
We publish lived experience reports, policy submissions, public-interest briefings, institutional failure analyses, reform recommendations, and national standards — building a permanent public record of system performance.
Explore this work →Public Debate & Advocacy
NLEC advances public debate by giving voice to people affected by system failure, trauma, exclusion, injustice, addiction, homelessness, family violence, disability, poverty, and institutional harm across Australia.
Explore this work →Evidence
Parliamentary Evidence & Submissions
June 2026
Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS
Submission 19: Embedding Lived Experience Intelligence
Recommendations on NDIS governance, performance, safeguards, and preventing administrative harm.
Read moreJune 2026
Senate Community Affairs Legislation
Submission 1129: NDIS Amendment Bill 2026
Analysis of co-design failures, psychosocial impacts, and gendered impacts on carers.
Read moreJune 2026
Senate Select Committee on AI & Data Centres
Submission 10: AI Infrastructure Safeguards
Focus on automated decision-making in essential services and digital exclusion.
Read moreJune 2026
Senate Community Affairs References
Submission 21: Support at Home Program
Examining cross-system reform, care-system redesign, and genuine co-design standards.
Read more8
States & Territories
National reach across all jurisdictions
2026
Intelligence Report
Flagship annual publication released
7
Co-Design Standards
Framework for genuine co-design
Annual
Program
National Evidence Collection
Latest
News & Updates
Senate Submission24 September 2026
NLEC Social Housing Submission Authorised for Publication
The Senate Economics References Committee has authorised NLEC's submission for publication. Read our cross-system accountability statement and visit the official inquiry.
Read statement →Parliamentary Hearing11 September 2026
NLEC evidence to NDIS Joint Standing Committee
Daniel Vamplew and Eric Barrett-O'Keefe appeared before the Committee to discuss embedding lived-experience intelligence in NDIS governance and performance.
Senate EvidenceJune 2026
NLEC's NDIS submission published as Submission 1129
Supplementary submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry into the NDIS Amendment Bill 2026.
PublicationJune 2026
National Lived Experience Intelligence Report 2026
Our flagship annual report synthesises lived experience evidence across public systems, informing national systemic reform.
FrameworkMay 2026
National Co-Design Standards Framework Released
New national standards provide a clear benchmark for what genuine co-design looks like when lived experience is centred throughout a process.