Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026

Ms ROWLAND (Greenway—Attorney-General) (17:12): It is an incredible privilege to be here as first law officer in my first debate on the appropriations bill, and I do so with a profound sense of responsibility. At a time when democracy is being challenged, trust in our legal institutions and upholding the rule of law has never been more important. I thank the member for Hasluck for her questions and her comments on the National Access to Justice Partnership.

I know she cares deeply about support for her community. I want to comment for the information of the House that my first actual public facing engagement I wanted to be at a community legal centre, which I did up the road in Fremantle. I was delighted to do that.

Shortly after, with the member for Melbourne, I visited a women's advocacy centre which also assists with legal rights. Along with my long-time friend the member for Macquarie, keeping our most vulnerable safe is a top priority, which is why we have engaged with her local community on important matters to do with the online environment and that space. It is absolutely correct, I'm sure you'll agree, that access to justice should not be determined by your postcode or your position in society.

I want to foreshadow that I'll take a particular interest in the upcoming 12 months in particular in visiting rural and parts of Australia and understanding their specific needs when it comes to legal assistance. I will be delighted to visit the members electorate, if that can be accommodated, to understand those needs. On 1 July this year, the Albanese government's $3.9 billion National Access to Justice Partnership commenced, and that's delivering critical support for frontline legal assistance services.

It is the single biggest Commonwealth investment in legal assistance ever, representing a funding increase of nearly $800 million over five years for legal assistance. It is a landmark agreement. It will help to drive critical reforms in the legal assistance sector.

It will also strengthen data capability and maturity of the sector, create a stronger and more sustainable workforce, and establish a robust framework to help progress actions towards closing the gap. I also thank the member for Macquarie for her questions on the Administrative Review Tribunal, because as she rightly points out unlike the former government the Albanese government has done the hard work to clean up our system of administrative review by establishing the ART and restoring probity to the appointments process.

There is a restoration at last on integrity into merits review. However its operational experience since October last year has shown that measures can be taken to further improve its efficiency while still preserving the ability of applicants to make their case. That's why I've brought forward amendments to the ART Act and the Migration Act to do a number of things, including requiring that student-visa refusal matters are considered by the tribunal on the papers—that is, without the need for an oral hearing.

It allows the minister to prescribe other temporary visa classes for review on the papers, but I would note that reviewable protection decisions are expressly excluded. It provides the tribunal with a new broad discretion to dispense with oral hearings subject to a number of important caveats. These measures will seek to provide the tribunal with the operational tools and flexibility it needs to progress merits reviews in a fair and efficient way.

I would again point out that we are only now nearing the first anniversary of the operation of the ART. I'm sure that in the years to come we will see even more substantial outcomes as a result of those changes. Finally I want to touch on another important reform that I introduced to parliament this morning.

That is the establishment of a Commonwealth parole board. Australians rightly expect the release of offenders from custody into the community will be managed as safely as possible, and this measure that I have introduced will make the community safer. It will strengthen the Australian public's trust and confidence in the federal parole system by ensuring that decisions are made by experts who are best placed to make assessments of risks when considering the protection of the community, and that will be the highest priority for the board.

For the information of the House, there are actually around 1,200 federal offenders serving sentences right across every state and territory, and that is actually more than the prison populations of the ACT and Tasmania combined. We are the last jurisdiction, as the Commonwealth, to have an independent adult-parole board, and the time for that has come. Decisions about parole should be made by panels of independent experts, not by politicians or bureaucrats.

I look forward to the parliament supporting that. In the short time I have available, I will continue to engage, as I am always very happy to do with the honourable member when it comes to the matters that she's raised. My colleagues from the opposition who asked other questions aren't here to hear the answers, but I will take that up with them separately.

Thank you very much. Proposed expenditure agreed to.