Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026
Mr LEESER (Berowra) (16:47): When Australians think about the justice system, they think about the safety of their community. They think about the desire to keep family safe, and, if something were to happen, our government would look after them. As I've said many times, all law-abiding Australians deserve the full protection of the law, and that's the task of the Attorney-General's portfolio.
Legislative responsibilities, the front-facing government employees and the independent statutory agencies that fall within its remit are meant to uphold the rule of law and protect Australians from abuses of power. They're meant to ensure that justice is neither delayed nor denied. Australians have a deep sense of fairness, and, when that fairness is undermined, the confidence of the community is shaken.
Justice isn't some abstract concept; it's the difference between safety and fear, stability and uncertainty, and accountability and chaos. Under this government, we've seen these mechanisms flounder and weaken. Take the Administrative Review Tribunal.
Labor abolished the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and rebranded it as the ART. They spent more than a billion dollars on this so-called reform. But what has it delivered?
Slower outcomes, growing backlogs and a justice system that's failing ordinary Australians. When the coalition left office, the AAT had around 67,720 cases on hand. The median time to finalisation was 30 weeks.
Today, under Labor, the ART has 111,755 cases on hand and a medium finalisation time of 68 weeks. That's a backlog blowout of more than 44,000 cases and an additional nine months of waiting. Attorney, why has a billion dollars of taxpayers' money delivered nothing more than a shiny new nameplate and slower justice for Australians?
When pressed on this, Labor point to the spike in student visa refusals, as if that's not also their responsibility. The figures are damning. When we left office, there were 2,725 student visa cases before the AAT.
Now there are 40,275 before the ART, with an average resolution time of 62 weeks. That's not reform; it's failure. The same is true for refugee matters.
When the coalition left office, there were 37,025 cases before the tribunal, with a medium finalisation time of 113 weeks. Now there are 41,846 cases, with a medium time of 175 weeks—that's three years. Yes, that's three years for Australians and those seeking protection to get a decision.
On transparency, the picture's no better. This is a government that's talked a big game about open government, but it has instead entrenched secrecy. FOI refusals have spiked.
Non-disclosure agreements are now routine. Senate orders for the production of documents are being ignored. Standing orders in the House have been changed to limit scrutiny.
Staff who hold governments accountable have been slashed. And now the government wants to introduce a truth tax. The Freedom of Information Amendment Bill is nothing more than a cash grab to curtail Australians' right to know what their government is doing.
Attorney, can you honestly say your bill is about reform rather than revenue? Can you explain why, when every major transparency group says this bill should be withdrawn, your government insists on pushing ahead? Then there's the Human Rights Commission.
Under this government the commission has been stacked with activists who are failing to do their jobs. The ANAO reported at the start of this year that the timeliness of the complaints-handling function, the commission's most important function, has been declining. At a time when antisemitism has reached unprecedented levels in our country, the commission has been MIA.
We've seen shops trashed, cars burned and synagogues attacked. We've seen the mobs at the Sydney Opera House steps chanting 'gas the Jews' or 'where's the Jews', while law-abiding Australians were not able to go to their opera house. We've seen gangs driving through Caulfield boasting about hunting for Jews.
We've seen the survivors of October 7—survivors of the worst loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust—abused on Australian soil. And what has the commission done? For months it could barely bring itself to mention antisemitism.
It was more interested in the rights of protesters. The Race Discrimination Commissioner continues to refuse to condemn the antisemitic phrase 'from the river to the sea'. Its contractors and staff made shocking prejudiced remarks about Jewish Australians.
Attorney, why is a commission that costs nearly $16 million failing to provide the very protection for the Australians it was created to defend? Why should taxpayers pay commissioners $400,000 salaries to ignore the needs of law-abiding Australians and instead undertake ideological pursuits? With the Jewish and Muslim communities now having their own specific antiracism envoys, and the Hindu Council of Australia calling for a Hinduphobia or Indiaphobia envoy, what is the ongoing purpose of the Race Discrimination Commissioner?
Isn't this an indictment on the Race Discrimination Commissioner and the Human Rights Commission broadly? And does the Attorney maintain confidence in this Race Discrimination Commissioner? I end with some important questions.
Across the Attorney's portfolio, the story is the same: delays and disappointment. Attorney, will you fix the tribunal backlog? Will you withdraw your truth tax?
Will you reform the Australian Human Rights Commission into a body that protects all Australians equally? And will you confront the failures you've inherited from your predecessor?