Human rights issues ignored by Federal Parliament: RMIT report reveals

Dr Adam Fletcher, Lecturer, College of Business and Law (03 9925 5230 or adam.fletcher@rmit.edu.au)

Topics: Human Rights, Law, federal parliament

“Between 2019 and 2022, the Australian Parliament passed a number of laws that had major effects on Australians’ human rights, including in relation to hot-button issues such as health, welfare and immigration.”

“Human rights issues were regularly ignored in the last parliamentary term, and many laws with insufficient rights safeguards were passed as a consequence.”  

“There were laws dictating how people could spend their income support (in a trial that ran for two years longer than it should have), national security laws with inadequate rights safeguards, and even laws made by the Executive which prevented citizens from returning to Australia.”

“Clearly, the last few years saw the Australian Parliament and Government dealing with a national emergency, and some rights-restrictive laws were to be expected in response.”

“Australians are waking up to the fact that we lack a national Charter of Human Rights, and that the political system needs more checks and balances to ensure our rights cannot be trampled.”

“In the absence of human rights law enforceable in the courts, the parliamentary human rights scrutiny regime (headed by the Joint Committee on Human Rights) is our flagship human rights protection mechanism.” 

“However, its advice on human rights implications of new laws too often goes unheeded. In fact, the research conducted for this report showed that 60% of all Bills raising rights concerns in the last parliamentary term were rushed through before the Joint Committee could scrutinise them properly.”  

“Australians could all benefit from more effective mechanisms to ensure human rights are protected in new federal laws.”

Dr Adam Fletcher is a Lecturer in the Graduate School of Business and Law. He is currently researching Government use of technology such as automated decision-making and facial recognition, and its impact on human rights. Adam has also worked as a legal adviser to the Australian Government and in the NGO sector.

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Interviews: Dr Adam Fletcher, 03 9925 5230 or adam.fletcher@rmit.edu.au  

General media enquiries: RMIT Communications, 0439 704 077 or news@rmit.edu.au