Tuesday, 7 February 2023

Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:33): (12) My question is for the Attorney-General. Last year in this house we passed a bill to implement an international agreement on the protocol against torture in detention known as OPCAT. However, it was reported a few weeks ago that Victoria has missed the deadline to set up a body to manage this monitoring regime. What is the reason for this deadline being missed on such an important issue?

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (13:33): I thank Dr Limbrick for his question. There are a couple of issues that you have raised. There is the legislation that we passed to facilitate the UN subcommittee visit to our state in relation to the inspection of places of detention, and it was great that this Parliament had the foresight to pass that legislation to enable that visit to occur, unlike some other states.

But when it comes to the broader OPCAT commitment that has been made by the federal government I think it is useful to just give a brief overview of the current oversight that is in place in Victoria. We have an oversight regime that covers places of detention involving IBAC, the Ombudsman, human rights agencies, specialist commissioners and voluntary visitor schemes which, similar to OPCAT principles, have a view, have a purpose, to prevent acts of torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment against people deprived of their liberty. Victoria runs three voluntary independent visitor programs that conduct regular monitoring visits to prisons, youth justice centres and accommodation facilities for people with disabilities and mental impairments, and I am sure that the Minister for Corrections is more across the intricacies and operation of those programs than me. Victoria’s detention oversight regime in that sense meets the objectives of OPCAT.

But that is not to say that we do not further support the principles of OPCAT that the federal government has signed up to at the international level, because that was a 2017 ratification and it does not impose additional and separate obligations on states and territories. Victoria has been consistent in its position from this time of ratification – alongside other states, particularly New South Wales – that a sufficient and ongoing funding commitment from the Commonwealth is required to essentially implement and deliver on those obligations which go over and beyond the robust regime that we already have in place.

In fact I think it was in October 2021 that the New South Wales Attorney-General Mark Speakman and I jointly wrote to the Commonwealth explaining our position: that we would be unable to take steps to implement some aspects of OPCAT that perhaps were not picked up by what we already have without accompanying sufficient and ongoing funding from the Commonwealth. It was a matter that was on the agenda at SCAG, which is the Standing Council of Attorneys-General, the forum for federal, state, territory and New Zealand ministers in the Attorney-General space, so I am continuing these conversations with the new Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. I will update the house if we can get any commitment out of them to help fund the obligations that they have signed up to, but with full confidence that we have a very robust system that is already in existence.

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:37): I thank the Attorney-General for her answer. Can I just clarify, then, with the Attorney: that sounds like Victoria will remain not fully compliant with OPCAT until such time as the federal government provides funding. Is that the current situation?

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (13:37): It is a national obligation, so it is not that Victoria is non-compliant. It is not Victoria’s obligation to meet. It is the federal government’s obligation that they have signed up to, and we have asked for assistance to ensure that we can implement the full requirements that they would like us to, not only to establish but to provide funding to ensure that we can have an ongoing system that meets OPCAT obligations.

The PRESIDENT: Before I call the next ministers statement, I acknowledge that former member of the Assembly and former government minister John Pandazopoulos is in the gallery.