Thursday, 1 June 2023

 David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:09): (283) My adjournment matter is for the Attorney-General. As an advocate of rights, I have frequently expressed my concerns regarding the government’s neglect of these vital principles. It is disheartening to witness our country’s standing on the global stage diminish in this regard. In February, I asked the Attorney-General a question in relation to the international agreement on the protocol against torture and detention, known as the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, after it was reported that Victoria had missed the deadline to set up a body to manage the monitoring regime, and the UN subcommittee on the prevention of torture subsequently cancelled their visit to Australia. On the same day, the SPT confirmed visits to nations like South Africa, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Croatia, Georgia, Guatemala, Palestine and the Philippines for the year 2023 but not Australia. The Attorney-General’s response, in short, was that we would be unable to take steps to implement some aspects of OPCAT that perhaps were not picked up by what we already had without accompanying sufficient and ongoing funding from the Commonwealth and that the Attorney-General would:

… update the house if we can get any commitment out of them to help fund the obligations that they have signed up to.

Since that time, the federal budget has been handed down. If the federal and state Labor Party’s principles align and those principles value human rights, then one would expect the federal Labor government would provide adequate funding to ensure that Victoria and other states are compliant with international treaties that this country has ratified. My request is that the Attorney follow through on the commitment to update the house on this matter and help return Australia to a position where we comply with international human rights standards that we have signed up to.