Page 4830 - Week 16 - Thursday, 29 November 1990
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conviction; impairment - including HIV/AIDS; and association with a person having a latent impairment, that is, discrimination encountered by relatives, carers and associates of persons with an impairment such as HIV/AIDS.
Mr Speaker, discrimination will be unlawful in the areas of work; education; access to places or vehicles; provision of goods, services and facilities; accommodation and clubs. There are, of course, exceptions to what would otherwise be unlawful discrimination in certain circumstances. Unlike the Follett Human Rights Bill, religious and political conviction are included as grounds of unlawful discrimination.
The Discrimination Bill takes into account the fact that it is not only persons with HIV/AIDS who encounter discriminatory treatment; people with asymptomatic conditions associated with the virus in the family, friends and carers of people with the virus are also discriminated against. The discrimination suffered by those people was not in the minds of those responsible for the Follett Bill as they received no protection under Ms Follett's Human Rights Bill. This Saturday is World AIDS Day. It is fitting that the ACT Discrimination Bill which is being tabled so close to that occasion offers such extensive protection to people with HIV/AIDS and their families, carers and associates.
The Bill is loosely based on Western Australian equal opportunity legislation; however, the form of the Bill is different. It has been structured so that it is relatively simple for a person to find out whether he or she has been subjected to unlawful discrimination, and how he or she can take appropriate action. I congratulate the Legislative Counsel's Office on its innovative layout of the Bill.
The Discrimination Bill provides for the creation of an office of the ACT Human Rights Commissioner. In the recent ACT budget money was allocated for establishing this office. The office of the commissioner will be responsible for the promotion of recognition and acceptance within the community of the principle of equality. The office of the commissioner will also administer and enforce the terms of the legislation in those regrettable situations where discrimination has occurred.
The office of the commissioner will be lean and cost-effective, but have sufficient human resources to perform education, legislation review, and administration functions. The Follett Human Rights Bill proposed a massive administrative structure. That Bill envisaged an office with a commissioner and staff, and a human rights tribunal with a presiding officer, deputy presiding officers, a panel of up to 12 persons and a registrar. How the ACT was to pay for the services of this cast of thousands was never explained.
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