Page 3100 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 12 September 1990
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The creation of any right or prohibition is only as good as its enforcement. I have already referred to the difficulties encountered by Canberra residents who seek to make complaints to the Commonwealth Human Rights Commission. This Bill seeks to address the situation by creating an ACT commissioner for human rights and a human rights tribunal. The commissioner for human rights will be a focal point for complaints about discrimination. The commissioner will have full powers to investigate complaints and will be required to make all reasonable endeavours to resolve complaints by conciliation. Where it appears that a matter cannot be resolved by conciliation, the commissioner will refer a complaint to the human rights tribunal for hearing and determination. The commissioner will also have relevant powers to conduct education and public information work, to conduct research and to make recommendations to the Minister for the reform of laws consistent with the objects of the Bill. The Bill will also allow the commissioner to provide advice or assistance for the resolution of problems of people with physical or mental impairment.
The human rights tribunal will be established with powers to determine compensation, to require a respondent to refrain from further offences, or to require parties to a case to take action to redress loss or damage. The tribunal will not need to operate in a legalistic manner, although legal representation of parties will be possible.
In introducing this Bill it is difficult not to observe that it has been made necessary by the total inaction of the Attorney-General. It should be a matter of shame to the Government that, with the meagre resources available to me, I am able to present a detailed and coherent Bill long before Mr Collaery can do so with all of the resources available to him. We on this side of the Assembly have waited and waited for some action. I gather that the timetable for the Government's Bill has now been put back to February and we cannot wait any longer.
Mr Collaery's inaction is all the more astonishing, given his repeated statements that this legislation would be a priority. He has repeatedly promised that it was just around the corner. Yet again we have learnt in this Assembly that Mr Collaery's promises amount to nothing. Last January Mr Collaery complained that we would not give him, and I will quote, "a few weeks to finalise this important package of laws". That was last January. In March Mr Collaery gave another defence of his inaction, drawing attention to the problems of discrimination against HIV patients and discrimination on the grounds of age. Now we know that the Government is promising a draft of the Bill in November, with an introduction to the Assembly possibly next February.
This Bill tackles the problem about which Mr Collaery is still prevaricating. This Bill shows who is serious about
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