Budget ignores OPCAT entirely as funding offer expires
With an offer of one-off funding to the states and territories to implement obligations under a UN anti-torture agreement expiring late last year, OPCAT has now slipped out of the budget completely.
The federal government has wiped any mention of its obligations under a UN anti-torture agreement from the budget entirely after a one-off funding offer to the states expired last year.
The 2025-26 federal budget, handed down by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Tuesday night, contains no mention of the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT).
OPCAT requires signatories to establish independent inspectors of places of detention, known as National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs), and facilitate visits by UN groups of independent experts.
In Australia, each state and territory is responsible for appointing the NPMs, but an ongoing disagreement over whether the Commonwealth should provide ongoing funding for them has stalled implementation and led to a deadlock.
Australia signed onto OPCAT 15 years ago and ratified it seven years ago, and has been in breach of its obligations under the international human rights protocol for several years.
An offer of one-off Commonwealth funding to the states and territories was rejected by every jurisdiction apart from Tasmania and the ACT, and expired late last year.
A spokesperson for the Attorney-General’s Department confirmed that this funding offer was no longer on the table.
“The Australian government made a one-off funding offer to all states and territories to support their National Preventive Mechanism implementation, which expired on 30 June 2024,” the spokesperson told The Justice Map.
“Each offer was proportionate to the number to primary places of detention and approximate cost for travel to places of detention outside capital cities.
“The government continues to work with all states and territories to support OPCAT implementation.”
OPCAT has not been included in the latest federal budget, and with Australia’s three largest states refusing to implement OPCAT until they are provided ongoing funding from the federal government, Australia is likely to remain in breach for the foreseeable future.
A table detailing proposed one-off funding to jurisdictions for OPCAT implementation has been included in the last four budgets, and has now been removed.
OPCAT has also fallen off the agenda for the nation’s Attorneys-General. After agreeing in early 2024 to “continue to cooperatively and progressively work towards compliance with OPCAT”, the agreement has not been listed in a communique for a meeting of the Attorneys-General in the more than 12 months since.
New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are still yet to nominate NPMs, and have said they will not do so unless they receive ongoing funding from the Commonwealth.
In its recent report on OPCAT, the Commonwealth Ombudsman said that even the jurisdictions that have nominated NPMs have not provided enough funding for them to undertake their duties under the international agreement adequately.