Document
Index
Budget Paper 2
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Document
Index |
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Expense ($m)
Explanation
The Government will provide funding over three years for its election commitment to increase awareness of alternatives to litigation and to increase the availability of non-litigious dispute resolution services. This will be achieved by providing community and professional awareness and education campaigns and by increasing the availability of counselling, mediation and primary dispute resolution services through Legal Aid Commissions and community based organisations.
The Attorney-General’s Department and the Department of Family and Community Services have implemented a partnership arrangement to more effectively deliver counselling and mediation services to troubled families.
This measure delivers on the Government’s election commitment in Our Families, Our Strength, Our Future.
Expense ($m)
Explanation
The Government will establish a federal magistracy to serve the interests of the Australian community by increasing the accessibility of justice for all Australians.
The Federal Magistrates Service, as it will be known, will provide effective, appropriate and timely access to justice in all matters within its jurisdiction. It will use alternative dispute resolution procedures where appropriate, with an emphasis in its family law jurisdiction on the conciliation of disputes and the welfare of children.
Further Information
A federal magistracy will deal with less complex cases, enabling judges of both the Family and Federal Courts to concentrate on the more complex areas of law. The magistracy will ease the workload of the Federal and Family Courts and will address delays which have built up particularly in the family law jurisdiction. It is anticipated that the magistracy will commence in early 2000 following passage of the enabling legislation through Parliament.
Expense ($m)
Explanation
Following its election commitment the Government, in conjunction with State and Territory counterparts, will establish a National Crime Information System (CrimTrac) to provide police in all jurisdictions with rapid access to detailed, current information. In particular, CrimTrac will establish, for the first time, a national DNA Criminal Intelligence Database and a National Child Sex Offender Database. It will also replace the outdated National Automated Fingerprint Identification System. CrimTrac will allow real time access to operational policing data on a national basis.
The development and implementation of CrimTrac will be phased. It is envisaged that by the end of 2000 a new fingerprint identification system will be in operation and significant components of the DNA and child sex offender databases will have been implemented. Further enhancements to CrimTrac will occur in the following years.
This measure delivers on the Government’s election commitment in A Safer and Stronger Australia.
Expense ($m)
Explanation
The Government will provide funding over four years to implement its election commitment for a National Crime Prevention programme. This programme will be aimed at identifying and promoting ways to effectively reduce and prevent crime, and fear of crime in society and to prevent future involvement of young people in crime and delinquent behaviour.
The programme will be implemented in partnership with other Commonwealth agencies, the States and Territories, local government and the non-government sector. As part of the National Crime Prevention programme, the Government will provide funding for an early intervention programme, which will work with families and young people, to prevent young people entering into criminal or delinquent behaviours.
This measure delivers on the Government’s election commitment in A Safer and Stronger Australia.
Expense ($m)
Explanation
As part of the expansion of the Tough on Drugs strategy announced as an election commitment, the Government will provide additional resources to the Australian Customs Service to significantly increase Customs' ability to detect and seize illicit drugs being imported into Australia. The funding will provide Customs with an increased search capability through:
This measure delivers on the Government’s election commitment in Tough on Drugs – Strengthening the Fight.
Expense ($m)
Explanation
The Government will provide funding for four additional strike teams as part of its expansion of the Tough on Drugs strategy, which it announced as an election commitment. The strike teams will comprise investigators, intelligence and financial analysts, technical experts, surveillance and counter intelligence personnel as required.
This initiative will provide the Australian Federal Police (AFP) with increased scope to build teams of differing composition and duration to pursue drug trafficking activity on a broader front and in greater depth. The new strike teams will allow the AFP to deploy resources to locations where the threat of illegal activity is significant but where a large permanent AFP presence cannot be justified.
This measure delivers on the Government’s election commitment in Tough on Drugs – Strengthening the Fight.
Expense ($m)
Explanation
The Government will provide funding for its election commitment in Our Families, Our Strength, Our Future for at least 25 additional children’s contact services to meet the growing demand for greater accessibility to these services and to reduce delays and waiting times. Children’s contact services help those separated parents who have difficulties in working within agreed access or parenting arrangements by facilitating safe contact with or handover of children.
The additional services will also assist in reducing the numbers of parents contesting breaches of contact orders by providing safe, appropriate and managed opportunities for contact and changeover of children and referrals to other appropriate services to assist with conflict between parents.
The Attorney-General’s Department and the Department of Family and Community Services have implemented a partnership arrangement to more effectively deliver children’s contact services.
Expense ($m)
Explanation
Following its election commitment in Law and Justice, the Government will provide additional funding to expand assistance and extend access to justice for disadvantaged people in rural and regional Australia through the establishment of new community legal services. Five new community legal services will be established in Broken Hill, Gippsland, Kalgoorlie, Mt Gambier and Riverland SA which are high need regional hubs where there is no current access to community legal services. In addition, a legal outreach service will be established from Darwin to service outlying areas in the Top End.
Expense ($m)
Explanation
The Government will establish a national family law telecommunication advice and information service to facilitate the resolution of family disputes and encourage compliance with parenting orders and child support payments thereby meeting its election commitment in Law and Justice and Our Families, Our Strength, Our Future. The advice and information service will be easily accessible to clients across Australia. It will also provide a viable alternative to litigation for families by providing access to timely and cost effective information and primary dispute resolution services.
Expense ($m)
Explanation
The Government will provide additional resources for the Australian Customs Service to ensure that the extraordinary volume of tourists and goods entering and departing Australia for the Olympics are expeditiously processed while appropriate border controls are maintained. The major areas of Customs’ operations affected by this measure will be passenger processing, cargo management and the marine fleet.
Expense ($m)
Explanation
The Government will implement a consistent standard of privacy protection in the private sector. An integral part of this framework will be light touch legislation to support self-regulatory privacy codes, approved by the Privacy Commissioner and provide a legislative framework where codes are not in place. This legislation will provide effective privacy protection to Australians, without imposing unnecessary compliance costs on business.
The legislation is being developed in consultation with representatives from key industry sectors, the Privacy Commissioner, the States and Territories and consumer and privacy groups.
Further Information
The Privacy Commissioner will be a key focus point in implementing the legislation, with community education, including working closely with the business community, a primary role. The Commissioner will provide assistance to business in understanding and applying the requirements of privacy protection, through the issue of guidelines and advice, with special assistance to small business enterprises. The Commissioner will provide advice and assistance to individuals wishing to make a complaint, and investigate and seek to resolve complaints where no code complaint mechanism is in place.
This measure is budget neutral. Reduced cost of outputs in the Attorney-General’s Department will be used to fund this expense and the related capital measure titled Data Protection in the Private Sector.
Expense ($m)
Explanation
The Government is committed to reform of matrimonial property law to ensure greater certainty and clarity in the allocation of matrimonial property, including accumulated superannuation interests, after marriage breakdown and to safeguard and protect the interests of all parties. The measure will contribute towards achieving a more effective, equitable and accessible law and justice within the system of government by the provision of an education campaign on amendments to the law about matrimonial property and accumulated superannuation interests, as well as the development of valuation factors by the Australian Government Actuary for accumulated superannuation interests.
Changes to the law about matrimonial property and accumulated superannuation interests could affect the entire married community. It will, therefore, be essential to educate the community as to the nature of the changes, how they will be affected by them and where they can get additional information about them.
This measure is budget neutral. The expenses associated with this measure will be funded from reduced cost of outputs in the Attorney-General’s Department.
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