About Us 

The HIV AIDS Legal Centre (HALC) is a not-for-profit, specialist community legal centre, and the only one of its kind in Australia.

We work to: 

• Provide free and comprehensive legal assistance (within operational guidelines) to people with HIV or Hepatitis-related legal matters;
• Undertake Community Legal Education and Law Reform activity in areas relating to HIV and Hepatitis;
• Provide legal training, education and experience to employees and volunteers; and
• Liaise and work in partnership with other organisations to achieve these objectives. 

So far this financial year, HALC's six staff and rotating team of volunteers have assisted over 750 clients with a host of legal issues ranging from migration, discrimination, employment or tenancy disputes, to domestic and family violence and criminal charges. 

About HALC's #InsureEquality EOFY Campaign 

Under both the federal and state anti-discrimination acts, an insurance company can refuse a person's claim for insurance (as well as increase their premiums or exclusions) without the decision being discriminatory if that decision is based on 'reasonable actuarial data'. HALC has encountered positive clients whose life, total and permanent disability (TPD), travel, critical illness/trauma, and income protection insurance applications have been knocked back as a result. Such decisions are, we believe, discriminatory. They have significant impacts on a person's wellbeing, as well as their capacity to care for themselves or their loved ones amidst difficult life events. Let alone broader stigmatising consequences.

We are concerned that, with the many advances in HIV and hepatitis care and support, 'reasonable actuarial data' no longer supports such decisions. As such, HALC, with the help of a grant from Gilead, is currently undertaking a project collating new actuarial data to prove this. 

That is where you, and other HALC supporters come in. To ensure change in insurance industry practice, and improve the insurance coverage available to people living with HIV/hepatitis, we also need to advance our capacity to provide legal advice and representation to those denied insurance. Already struggling with our caseload due to limited resources, this will be incredibly difficult to do without further financial support. 

So, please, donate to our #InsureEquality campaign, and spread the word within your networks about this important work. 

Donations to HALC will enable us to continue assisting vulnerable people living with HIV. All donations over $2 are tax deductible and every dollar will help us in our work to reform insurance policy and practice so that people living with HIV can be provided the security that insurance offers, just like those without HIV. Thank you all for your ongoing support.

Where will your money go? 

• For $250: HALC can provide one off advice to a person living with HIV/hepatitis who has been denied insurance due to their status. 
• For $500: HALC can prepare a discrimination complaint on behalf of a client denied insurance due to their status. 
• For $750: HALC can brief pro bono counsel for a hearing in the Federal Court challenging a denial of insurance, hoping to create a precedence which impacts insurance industry practices more broadly.  
• For $1000: HALC can support a client at conciliation in an insurance discrimination matter to negotiate for a resolution.
• For $20,000:  HALC can represent a client from start to finish in discrimination proceedings in the NCAT, including a defended hearing.