Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the government, I would like to indicate that the government will not be supporting the disallowance of these matters. I will just put on record, on behalf of the government, that, as part of the 2020-21 budget, the government is providing $36 million for additional FCC resourcing, including three additional general division judges, along with an additional family law judge and five additional family law judicial registrars. This will allow the court to resolve more matters every year, including an estimated 1,000 additional migration cases, which responds to the increase in FCC migration filings, from 3,544 in the year 2014-15 to 6,555 in 2019-20. This resourcing will be offset by an increase to the migration application fee, to which this regulation gives effect, with all revenue reinvested in the court. Currently, the FCC fee for migration matters is significantly lower than that of the AAT fee, and the new rate is set halfway between the AAT and Federal Court fee. Applicants will continue to have access to the court through the full fee exemption and new partial fee exemption mechanisms.