On 10 December 2008, the Federal Government launched a national public consultation on how best to protect human rights and responsibilities in Australia. The Consultation was led by an independent Committee, chaired by Father Frank Brennan AO and including Mary Kostakidis, Mick Palmer AO APM and Tammy Williams. The Consultation provided an opportunity for individuals and organisations in Australia to contribute their views about the legal protection of human rights.

The Government requested that the Committee provide recommendations, informed by the views of the community, on the following key questions:

Which human rights (including corresponding responsibilities) should be protected and promoted?
Are human rights currently sufficiently protected and promoted?
How could Australia better protect and promote human rights?

The Committee’s report was released on 8 October 2009, and is available online. The Committee made a number of recommendations, including that Australia should introduce a statutory Human Rights Act. Edward Santow and George Williams have written a summary of the key recommendations. The Australian Government is currently considering these recommendations, before making a formal response.

The National Human Rights Consultation received over 35,000 submissions, and met with over 5000 people. The deadline for submissions was 15 June 2009 and public submissions can be viewed on the Consultation secretariat website.

Major submission on behalf of the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law

The Centre’s major submission, by Edward Santow, covers most aspects of the Human Rights Act question. That submission proposes that the Commonwealth Parliament should enact a Human Rights Act (HRA) for three main reasons. First, the protection of human rights afforded by current Australian law is piecemeal, often weak and contains too many gaps. While modern Australia is not witness to the scale of human rights violations experienced by some other countries, that is not to say that Australia’s human rights record and current practices are perfect or even adequate. The submission sets out in detail the weaknesses in Australia’s approach to human rights, and how these can impact on the Australian community.

Secondly, Australia is obliged under international law to legislate domestically to protect human rights. Australia is unquestionably in breach of this obligation, and this leaves Australia isolated politically and legally.

Thirdly, and most importantly, there is a demonstrable need in the Australian community for enhanced legislative protection of human rights. The submission explains how a HRA would help to improve human rights protection in Australia. While acknowledging that the advent of a federal HRA would not be a panacea, it states that good human rights practice requires strong institutional support for human rights, the rule of law and a commitment by all arms of government to fairness and social justice. However, a HRA would be the most important element in achieving the goal of strong human rights protection.

Other submissions from the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law

A number of other members of the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law have put in submissions, including:

	A submission by Foundation Director, George Williams, on a Human Rights Act for Australia.
	A submission focussing on national security and terrorism by Ben Golder, Andrew Lynch, Nicola McGarrity and Christopher Michaelsen.
	A submission focussing on a Human Rights Act and federalism by Paul Kildea and Andrew Lynch
	A submission focussing on refugees and asylum seekers by Jane McAdam and Tristan Garcia.
	A submission focusing on Indigenous Legal Issues by Sean Brennan

Assistance in preparing submissions

Please note the deadline for submissions was 15 June 2009.

On 27 February 2009, the Australian Law Reform Commission, the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law presented a workshop entitled Writing submissions to law reform bodies: the National Human Rights Consultation and Beyond. Notes from that workshop are available from Session 1 (dealing with submission-writing generally), and Session 2 (which provided assistance in writing a submission to the National Human Rights Consultation. Podcast of Session 1 also available.

The Australian Human Rights Commission ran a series of further submission-writing workshops across Australia. For further information about those workshops, see the Commission website.

Resources to assist your participation

For further information and resources to assist individuals and organisations to participate in this important consultation, see:

National Human Rights Consultation website

Australian Human Rights Group

The Australian Human Rights Commission’s consultation website

Human Rights Law Resource Centre