Submission to 2024-25 Federal Budget consultation

The Human Rights Law Centre works across a range of issues, including campaigning for a federal Human Rights Act, migration justice, prisoners’ rights, whistleblower protection and modern slavery, each of which have implications for the 2024-2025 budget process.

Read the Human Rights Law Centre’s submission to the 2024-25 Federal Budget consultation here

The Human Rights Law Centre recommends that the Federal Government should:

1. Support an Australian Charter of Human Rights;

2. Ensure equivalency of medical care for people in prison across the country by granting an exception under section 19(2) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (Cth) to allow health care providers in prisons to claim the Medicare Benefits Schedule and PBS subsidies.

The Human Rights Law Centre recommends that the Federal Treasury should:

1. Implement in full the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights suggestion action 2.23 in its Scrutiny Report 8 of 2023 in formulating the 2024-25 Federal Budget;

2. Appropriately fund Aboriginal legal Services by:

   1. Restoring indexation of all service funding to Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to at least match CPI and increase base funding to make up for past funding shortfalls;

   2. At a minimum, doubling the Commonwealth Government’s contribution to base funding to Aboriginal Legal Services; and

   3. Taking advice from the National Family Violence Prevention and Legal Services Forum on the funding needs of its members and ensure these essential services can support everyone in need;

3. Provide appropriate funding for specialised legal services for temporary migrants: including (but not limited to) services to support access to ‘visa protections’

   1. for temporary migrant workers;

   2. to be allocated amongst community legal centres and Migrant Workers Centres, established in each state and territory.

4. Support an appropriate level of funding (with accompanying legislative amendments as necessary) for the establishment of a program to ensure that whistleblowers making disclosures under federal laws can obtain access to legal support (to an appropriate cap) to seek advice in relation to their rights concerning potential or actual disclosures, and potential steps to vindicate their rights and seek remedies, in addition to a smaller capped amount for associated costs such as welfare and career transition costs;

5. Expand the current budget for the office of the Anti-Slavery Commissioner to ensure it can carry out its functions effectively;

6. Allocate funds to adequately fund OPCAT implementation alongside the states and territories;

7. Allocate funds to provide fair and equal access to the Age Pension for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people;

8. Provide appropriate funding for the establishment of an independent Whistleblower Protection Authority to ensure sufficient resourcing for the WPA to oversee and enforce federal whistleblower protections and for the provision of support to whistleblowers and other agencies with respect to whistleblowing disclosures.

Read the full submission here