Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

The summary is correct. It is obviously a sobering matter to reflect on the previous portfolio of social services, where there was a budget in excess of $100 billion, and how important every dollar in the Attorney-General's portfolio is.

I thought I'd begin by summarising a number of new initiatives in the previous budget and how they relate to the total figure that you, Mr Deputy Speaker, have just noted. The total appropriations for the Attorney-General's Department will now include $379.1 million over the next five years to support the work of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.

It's also the case that a national mechanism will be created for Commonwealth legal assistance funding. In the recent budget there was the provision of an extra $114.3 million in extra funding to allow for that national mechanism to occur, which is distributed through Legal Aid and community legal centres.

It's also the case that in the previous budget the Commonwealth Integrity Commission had been budgeted for. That has $106.7 million of new money allocated to it over the forward estimates. That figure of $106.7 million excludes the $40.7 million that is already appropriated to the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity. That is a very significant appropriation over the forward estimates for the new body, the Commonwealth Integrity Commission.

In the previous budget it's also the case that $38.6 million is to be provided from 2019-20 to fund additional judges for the Federal Court of Australia, including to expand its jurisdiction to include corporate misconduct, ensuring the courts can cope with the current and future case load. Obviously much of that is earmarked in anticipation of further prosecutions emanating out of the banking royal commission. It is also the case that during the 2019 federal election the government announced additional funding of $12 million over the forward estimates.

On to other matters in my portfolio. There is $10 million going to the National Archives of Australia to digitise World War II records. In the context of the overall budget, that's a modest application, but it's an incredibly important project. It's something all Australians will benefit from, in due course. There's also $2 million in the election commitments for the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman to monitor the NDIS Participant Service Guarantee.

Preventing violence against women and children is obviously a top priority for our government. Since 2013, over $840 million in new money has been invested in that area. That of course includes $328 million under the Fourth Action Plan on the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children. As part of the 2018 Women's Economic Security Package, the government has provided ongoing funding initially of $7 million over three years to establish the Family Violence and Cross-examination of Parties Scheme. Under the scheme the Legal Aid commissions are being funded to legally represent parties so that victims of family violence are not subjected to cross-examination by their abuser, which was made law by legislation previously moved through this parliament.

It's also the case that in the 2018-20 budget there was an additional $7.8 million committed over three years for dedicated men's support workers to be engaged in all the family advocacy and service locations. Speaking with many of the judges who have been experiencing that, they see this as a very good initiative and that it is working and providing great assistance to litigants and the court. That $7.8 million builds on the previous investment and puts the men's support workers in the existing family and advocacy support services location.

Finally, I note the Morrison government is taking action to prevent vulnerable workers. On the other side of the portfolio, with respect to industrial relations, it's the case that in the previous budget we provided $10.8 million to enhance the Fair Work Ombudsman's capacity to conduct investigations and to improve migrant workers' understandings of their workplace rights. It's also the case that we have allocated $16 million to establish a National Labour Hire Registration Scheme, which was in response to the Migrant Workers' Taskforce recommendation. That work is underway. With that brief summary, I invite contribution from members.

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