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

It's a pleasure to be back here for consideration in detail in 2020. There is a large amount of funding across the Attorney-General's and Industrial Relations portfolio in the 2020-21 budget. We've announced funding of $212.7 million over four years for new measures in my two portfolios. Obviously, very many of them are working in response to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on both individuals and businesses. By way of a short summary of those matters, we have $35.3 million over two years to the A-G's department to continue the Fair Entitlements Guarantee program, which everyone knows is an important safety net for workers, ensuring that entitlements are paid if an individual loses their job to a liquidation or bankruptcy. This particular funding will provide for new temporary staff to process the FEG claims. Obviously we've been receiving an increase in those throughout the pandemic. They will be brought in on an as-necessary meeting-demand basis to ensure that Australian workers can access their FEG entitlements quickly and accurately when they are eligible.

We are also providing additional funding of $5.1 million over two years to the Fair Work Commission to deal with matters arising under the temporary JobKeeper provisions in the Fair Work Act and to resolve the increased volume of unfair dismissals and general protection matters arising as a result of the pandemic. I note that that funding builds on the $46.3 million over three years for the workplace regulator, the Fair Work Ombudsman, that was announced in the July Economic and Fiscal Update. That was obviously meant to deal with the demands of COVID-19. We are also providing $87.3 million to maintain funding for family law services, which are critically important at this time; $2.5 million in additional funding to the federal family law courts to establish a specialised COVID-19 list, which manages the sharp increase in urgent applications; and additional funding of $4.8 million to the Family Violence and Cross-examination of Parties Scheme, which protects victims of family violence in family law proceedings.

We're also providing $2.5 million towards the creation of the new federal family violence orders. Those orders will allow victims of family violence to obtain a criminally enforceable federal family violence order in the Family Court. There is also an additional $35.7 million over four years to the Federal Circuit Court to enable the court to assist with the timely resolution of both migration and family law matters. That will provide the court with three additional judges to hear immigration matters, one additional family law division judge as well as five additional family law registrars and increased base funding for the court. Those registrars will serve a very important role on the court. To ensure the courts continue to run effectively in regional areas, the government will also provide $7.7 million to address the safety and security of court users in the Rockhampton and in the Launceston Federal Circuit Court buildings and provide $2.5 million for a new case management system for the Family Court of Western Australia.

Additionally, the government will provide $10.6 million over two years to the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman to continue the vocational education and training FEE-HELP redress measures in the 2021 and 2022 years to help students who have debts under the loan scheme due to the inappropriate conduct of their private VET providers. There is $7.6 million for the AAT to enable the Immigration Assessment Authority to continue its role of reviewing and fast-tracking decisions; $1.6 million to the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman to ensure that it can effectively oversee the use of the new Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act by law enforcement agencies; and $9.9 million to expand the jurisdiction of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, ACLEI, to cover four new agencies—the ATO, ASIC, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. That funding was drawn from the 2019 Commonwealth Integrity Commission budget measure. As I have stated in the other chamber, ACLEI will form part of the new Commonwealth Integrity Commission. It will expand its jurisdiction. That is a very important and necessary first step to the government's model for the new Commonwealth Integrity Commission. There is also an additional $0.7 million provided to ACLEI to enable it to continue its oversight of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre and prescribed parts of the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.

Thank you for the opportunity to make that brief summary. I look forward to questions.

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