New report exposes lack of human rights consideration by Federal Parliament

A new report exposes the failure of the Federal parliament in the 2019 –22 term to fulfil its promise to properly consider human rights before voting on legislation.

The report, authored by RMIT Faculty of Law academic Adam Fletcher and commissioned by the Human Rights Law Centre, highlights that 60% of legislation with human rights concerns was made into law with no review completed by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.

The report details 43 out of 72 pieces of legislation passed in the 2019 – 2022 parliamentary term before human rights scrutiny could be completed, including:

• The extension of the cashless debit card in 2020

• Creating a mandatory ‘unique student identifier’ for tertiary education students in 2020; and

• The India travel ban delegated legislation in 2021

The report recommends legislating a Charter of Human Rights so that human rights must be considered when making Australian laws. It also calls for changes to Parliamentary procedure to ensure there is proper parliamentary scrutiny before Parliament votes on proposed legislation.

Adam Fletcher, RMIT Faculty of Law academic and author said:
“My research highlights how human rights issues were regularly ignored in the last parliamentary term, and that the consequences of this included a cashless debit card that ran for two more years longer than it should, and a mandatory student identifier that should have had privacy concerns fully dealt with before becoming law. Federal parliament, and therefore the community, is missing out on better laws when human rights aren’t being given proper consideration.”

Caitlin Reiger, CEO, Human Rights Law Centre said:
“Everyone benefits when human rights are placed at the heart of government decision making and parliamentary law making. There is a clear solution to the problems highlighted in this timely research – we know we can’t always rely on politicians to do the right thing. An Australian Charter of Human Rights will give our elected representatives clear guidance we can trust, and gives people and communities the power to hold governments to account when needed. The sooner this is a reality, the faster the benefits flow across the community.”

Read the Human Rights Scrutiny in the Australian Parliament report here.