International Justice Mission (IJM) Australia welcomes dedicated Australian Government funding to addressing child sexual abuse and uphold online safety regulation in the 2026-27 Federal Budget.
IJM welcomes the inclusion of dedicated continued funding for the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse 2021 - 2030 – specifically $12.1 million in 2026–27 for the Attorney‑General's Department, National Indigenous Australians Agency, Australian Federal Police, Australian Communications and Media Authority, Australian Institute of Criminology, and the Treasury to continue initiatives to prevent, disrupt and combat child sexual abuse, and maintain support services for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.
IJM Australia welcomes the additional allocation of $4.1 million in 2026-27 and $4.2 million in 2027-28 to the Attorney-General's Department for grants for services responding to child sexual abuse.
David Braga, CEO of IJM Australia, said that in a tight budgetary environment, these dedicated funds to protect children from sexual abuse are an important inclusion.
"Continued funding in this year's Budget for Australian Government agencies and civil society responding to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse is a welcome investment," Mr Braga said.
"Critically, we must also continue our leadership by building the capacity of overseas hot spots to protect children from online sexual exploitation. This in turn has a direct effect on Australia's ability to identify and prosecute local offenders.
"With continued justice system strengthening initiatives, Australia can significantly contribute to ending online sexual exploitation of children in our region by investing in solutions that work.
"We know this Government also remains committed to online child safety, and welcome additional funding allocations for the important functions of the Office of the eSafety Commissioner, including $70 million in 2026-27 and subsequent funding over the forward estimates.
"As recently as April, the Albanese Government restated its commitment to legislating a digital duty of care as part of their Online Safety Act reform, a critical step in ensuring tech companies are required to take steps to prevent foreseeable harms like live online child sexual abuse on their products and services. We call on the Government to urgently release its proposed legislation and introduce it to the Parliament.
"Australia has the expertise and obligation to continue to provide a leadership role in protecting children from online sexual exploitation and abuse, and IJM strongly urges the Government to maintain its momentum to protect children in Australia and around the world."
About us:
IJM partners with local authorities in 34 field offices in 20 countries to combat slavery, violence against women and children, and police abuse of power. IJM's mission is to protect people in poverty from violence by rescuing victims, bringing criminals to justice, restoring survivors to safety and strength, and helping local law enforcement build a safe future that lasts.
IJM is working in partnership with local authorities to protect six million children in the Philippines from online sexual exploitation by strengthening the local justice system and advocating for stronger online safety laws in demand-side countries like Australia to protect children online.
IJM's prevalence study found that in 2022 alone almost half a million or 1 in 100 children in the Philippines were trafficked to produce new child sexual abuse material, including images, videos and livestreams, for sale to offenders around the world.
On a per capita basis, Australia was the highest sender of payments flagged as suspicious transactions to the Philippines related to child sexual abuse material over 2020 – 2022, according to the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council
