Page 800 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 1990
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am advised that there was a legislative impediment to forming an agency agreement with the Territory. Under the definitional section 3 of the HREOC legislation there was no provision for a territory to make an agency arrangement; only a State can do so.
No-one has a monopoly on the protection of human rights. You can be assured that the Alliance Government is committed to the preservation of high standards that exist in Australia in the area of human rights. Recently I attended a meeting of the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General, at which the matter of human rights was on the agenda. The Commonwealth Government has requested confirmation from the States and territories that they support Australia's accession to the draft Convention on the Rights of the Child and the second optional protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. That protocol calls for the abolition of capital punishment. The Alliance Government, along with the States and the Northern Territory, will be providing formal responses to those issues in consultation with relevant parties, and naturally we will be interested in the views of the Assembly.
Far from failing to consider such matters, my officers are at present analysing these important instruments to ensure that existing laws in the ACT are not inconsistent with articles in the convention and the protocol. It is highly unlikely that ACT laws will be inconsistent, except for minor matters which may arise in interpretation.
In addition, my officers are examining the first optional protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. That protocol calls for the establishment of an international forum which will examine and report to the United Nations on alleged abuses of civil and political rights in circumstances in which a complainant has no avenue of appeal or, alternatively, has exhausted appeal rights in his or her country.
These instruments were under consideration before the Alliance Government took office. It is interesting to note that the Alliance Government has not taken advantage of the fact that the Follett Government could have settled some formal responses on behalf of the ACT in some of these matters to Lionel Bowen earlier than the date on which it was put out of office.
In relation to domestic human rights the Alliance Government has already announced its policy on the status of women. You heard my colleague the Chief Minister put forward his "Blueprint on the Ageing", in which profound human rights issues are addressed - in particular, the reference to age discrimination.
We have undertaken to introduce antidiscrimination legislation to combat sexist stereotyping and to ensure that ACT Government publications reflect the gender
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