Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2026-2027
Ms CLUTTERHAM (Sturt) (16:56): I'm pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the consideration in detail with regard to budget measures relating to the Attorney-General. This portfolio is charged with providing expert advice and high-quality legal services to the Australian government and its entities, always as a model litigant. The requirement to be a model litigant means the Commonwealth and its agencies are required to act honestly, consistently and fairly in handling claims and litigation; deal with claims promptly; make early assessments of the government's prospects of success; pay legitimate claims promptly; not take advantage of a party who lacks resources to litigate a legitimate claim; keep costs to a minimum; not rely on merely technical defences; and consider alternative dispute-resolution options.
In addition, the portfolio has responsibility for designing, implementing, maintaining, evaluating and reforming legal and policy frameworks to promote better outcomes for the Australian community in a range of areas, including rights, justice, security and integrity. This all sits within the ambit of the Attorney-General, and this element of the portfolio is significant because it touches on how we live, how we interact as a community and how we protect and maintain the way that we live.
The Attorney-General's portfolio often goes about its work quietly, but the significant work that the portfolio undertakes with respect to law reform is meaningful because it impacts the frameworks which govern and guide our communities and our country. Importantly, this portfolio is also charged with the critical task of working to improve access to justice for vulnerable people—including women, children and First Nations peoples—and of establishing and providing support to royal commissions, to assist them to commence their inquiries in a timely manner, consistent with their terms of reference.
The portfolio has broad, wide-ranging and impactful responsibilities, and we see this play out in the budget. A key budget measure for the Attorney-General's portfolio is ending gender based violence. The gravity and significance of this cannot be underestimated, and it must always be properly funded and resourced.
It is a huge challenge but one that we must meet through this portfolio to drive legal and systemic reforms that we need to eradicate gender based violence. Key initiatives in this respect include funding specialised sexual-violence legal-service pilot schemes, criminalising image based abuse and advancing the 2022-2032 National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children.
Similarly, the Attorney-General, alongside the National Office for Child Safety, drives the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse. This 10-year framework implements key recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. There are several key areas of focus in this respect.
Firstly, there is awareness and education which is delivering nationwide campaigns like the One Talk at a Time campaign, to build child-safe cultures and teach body safety. This has been rolled out and is a simple, non-threatening campaign designed not only to educate children and young people but to create an environment where they feel safe and empowered to speak up for themselves.
Then there is the offender prevention program, which is about implementing frameworks to identify and prevent online child sexual abuse and enhance vetting capabilities. The portfolio is also coordinating the government's response to the antisemitic attack in Bondi. The supported measures, which are critical, include stricter hate crime laws, the banning of hate symbols and organisations who engage in hate crimes, and the development of powers for the Minister for Home Affairs to refuse or cancel visas based on hate motivated conduct.
The time to continue acting in this respect is now. I also want to highlight the role of the Attorney-General in Australia's nuclear-powered submarine program, which supports the government on policy and legal issues related to nuclear powered submarines. The critical and essential national endeavour that is AUKUS needs to be supported by properly considered regulation and policy.
We often talk of AUKUS in the context of STEM only—and we should talk about it in this context—but there is more to it. We need to continue the work to develop and implement the frameworks by which matters relating to AUKUS will be governed and measured. This is a critical role for the Attorney-General.
Finally, I would like to ask the Attorney-General, in her remarks, to outline how the government is investing in our justice systems, our integrity framework and our institutions.