13 June 2023
A national inquiry into Australia’s human rights framework has been told that there is nothing to fear from introducing a national human rights act, and that the ACT Human Rights Act has helped authorities to balance government interests with those of citizens.
In May, Human Rights Commissioner Dr Helen Watchirs appeared before an inquiry into Australia’s human rights framework, at the Federal Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.
Dr Watchirs told the inquiry that the ACT Human Rights Act had genuinely improved the quality of ACT law-making.
“The Commission is regularly consulted at the early stages of policy and legislative development; and regularly comments on relevant draft cabinet submissions which engage with human rights. Our early involvement means better legislative outcomes.
“The Act provides a mechanism for human rights to be considered, without undermining the legislature’s supremacy to make laws.
“It also provides an interpretive mechanism for courts to use in applying laws; and the Act assists administrative decision makers to put people’s fundamental rights front of mind when developing policies and making decisions,” she said.
Failures such as Robodebt, aspects of the Northern Territory intervention, and the prosecution of former ACT Attorney General Bernard Collaery could have been avoided or remedied earlier if a Federal human rights legal framework and culture had been in place, Dr Watchirs said.
She decried the fact that Australia is now an outlier and the only liberal democracy in the world without a national Human Rights Act. “It is time for us to step up and bring human rights home to all Australians,” Dr Watchirs said.
The inquiry is expected to report back to the Federal Attorney General by March 2024.