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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-02 Daily Xml
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OPCAT Agreement

The Hon. C. BONAROS (14:34): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Attorney-General a question about OPCAT.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: In what human rights groups have now labelled an international embarrassment, the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture recently suspended its first visit to Australia due to obstructions in carrying out its mandate.

The delegation was refused entry to the Mary Wade Correctional Centre and the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, Sydney, in New South Wales, with New South Wales authorities saying the UN inspectors did not have prior approvals to visit those prisons, while the Queensland government refused the committee entry to its court cells, arguing its legislation didn't allow for the committee to enter—that is the Queanbeyan court cells.

In addition to being prevented from visiting several places where people are detained, the committee experienced difficulties in carrying out a full visit at other locations, and was not given all the relevant information and documentation it had requested. The extended deadline for Australia, including South Australia, to meet its international obligations is now 20 January 2023. My questions to the Attorney are:

1. Did the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture visit any facilities in South Australia and, if so, which ones?

2. Did the government at any time refuse the committee entry to any facilities in South Australia and, if so, on what grounds?

3. Can the government guarantee SA will be able to meet its OPCAT implementation deadlines of 2023?

4. What action is the government taking to ensure that is the case?

5. Will SA's prospective NPM actors be given any guidance and resources to commence their roles?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:35): I thank the honourable member for her question and her ongoing interest in the area of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT). I have to say that South Australia is disappointed at the decision by the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) to suspend its visit to Australia. I understand that the SPT carried out a number of successful visits in various jurisdictions prior to making its decision to suspend its visit to Australia.

I am advised that the SPT did not request to visit any South Australian places of detention while they were in South Australia. I am advised that South Australian authorities were fully prepared to facilitate the visit by SPT to any places of detention in South Australia and provide any relevant information that may have been sought. I understand that the ability for South Australia to accommodate SPT visits was known by the commonwealth. I further understand that the South Australian government will continue to work cooperatively with the commonwealth government and the SPT should it determine to resume its visit to South Australia in the future.

In relation to the questions the honourable member asked—not about SPT and their visit to Australia but about the OPCAT implementation in South Australia and funding for that—South Australia stands in the same position as I think every other jurisdiction in Australia does, in that we are prepared to implement it when the commonwealth provides proper and ongoing funding to do so. I think I have answered a question in this place before about the views of attorneys-general and governments right around Australia, that this is important and we are prepared to implement the treaty that the commonwealth government signed up to a number of years ago, but we are also prepared to do it on the basis that the commonwealth provides funding to do so.

The commonwealth has not done that for South Australia and, I understand, has not done that for any other state, which makes it extraordinarily difficult to meet the time lines that the commonwealth signed up to, when the commonwealth won't provide the funding for what they signed up to. I guess the short answer is that, yes, we are absolutely prepared to meet the obligations. We would do it in the time frame the commonwealth set down if the commonwealth provided the funding for what they signed up to. But, as I understand it, all other jurisdictions are still waiting on the commonwealth to make that decision.

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