Submission: 2026-27 Pre-Budget submissions

30 January 2026

Amnesty International Australia has made a submission to the Department of Treasury regarding Australia’s 2026-27 budget priorities.

AIA aims in this submission to draw the Government’s attention to issues which require serious consideration in planning Federal Budget expenditure. We raise three focus areas for consideration in the Budget:

• Protection of refugees and people seeking asylum in our region, primarily through an increase in the Refugee and Humanitarian Program.
• Overimprisonment and human rights abuses in youth detention of First Nations children.
• Australia’s response to the climate crisis.

We recommend that the Australian Government:

1. Establish a quota for intake of Rohingya refugees from Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, and those in Myanmar suffering human rights abuses, commensurate with the size and capacity of Australia, in addition to the regular humanitarian program intake.
2. Take a leading role in establishing a regional strategy including more sustainable, durable supports for Rohingya refugees beyond mere humanitarian aid.
3. Provide 20,000 dedicated places in addition to Australia’s humanitarian intake over four years for Afghan refugees from 2026 – and expedite outstanding applications by Afghans particularly those living in Iran or Pakistan and vulnerable to forced return.
4. Increase offshore Humanitarian Program places to 30,000 per annum in the 2026-27 Budget, with the vast majority being UNHCR-referred refugees.
5. Reconsider the vast expense of offshore and mandatory detention in the 2026-2027 Budget, and instead of funding policies that breach Australia’s international legal obligations redirect funds to expanding our humanitarian intake.
6. Raise the age of criminal responsibility urgently across Australia to 14 years.
7. Immediately enact an enforceable prohibition on the use of solitary confinement.
8. Ban the use of practices on young people that breach international law; abusive, torturous, cruel or inhuman treatment – including spit hoods, mechanical restraints, and holding children in adult facilities and watch houses.
9. Invest in effective prevention and rehabilitation programs co-designed and delivered with First Nations People aimed at reducing the over-imprisonment of young people, and fund a Youth Justice Framework.
10. Introduce National, rights-based Minimum Standards for youth justice aligned with the UN Convention on Rights of the Child.
11. Commit to a fair, fast and funded phase out of fossil fuels – including prohibiting new projects and regulating import and exports.
12. End subsidies for the fossil fuel industry and support for “carbon capture and storage” schemes.
13. Raise revenue by forcing the fossil fuel industry to compensate for its contribution to climate change.
14. Increase funding for the transition to renewable energy with respect for human rights as a core principle of the transition.
15. Provide funding for communities to prepare and respond to the impacts of climate change, including community-led and Indigenous-led initiatives.
16. Commit funding for global mitigation, adaptation, and resilience, to meet Australia’s share of the global New Collective Quantified Goal as agreed at COP29, including funding adaptation and resilience measures in the Pacific Islands, and in Bangladesh in recognition of our regional responsibilities and the 1.5 million displaced people being sheltered there.

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