Submission on Human Rights Bill
09 July, 2010 | Submission
The Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Bill 2010 proposes the introduction of a Statement of Compatibility and a Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.
The proposal adopts aspects of the United Kingdom model which seeks to ‘instil in both lawmakers and policymakers a self-regulatory approach to their work such that they automatically consider the human rights implications of what they do, and act accordingly.’
The ACTU welcomes the Bill as an important step towards the better protection of human rights in Australia. However, we would like to suggest two ways of improving the Bill, namely:
- By capturing the full scope of internationally protected human rights
- By capturing superior human rights protections that are already contained in Australian law
We also make some comments in relation to procedural issues, including the preparation of Statements of Compatibility, the role of the bureaucracy and the functioning of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.
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