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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 02 Hansard (Tuesday, 2 March 2004) . . Page.. 509 ..

More importantly, my amendments also seek to create a way for a person whose rights have been infringed to raise this violation in the public domain and get some assistance in their efforts to see justice done. A very important part of the Human Rights Bill process is that we have the enshrinement of our rights and we have the discussion here in the legislature about what that means. We should also then allow mechanisms for people in the community to take forward issues in a non-legalistic and non-expensive way.

I commend the government for an innovative process to protect human rights in the ACT and I am willing to support the law that strengthens human rights, however minor that strengthening might be. But I do lament what I see as a missed opportunity to shape the law of this territory so that it does put us at the forefront of human rights law. I hope that some of the amendments that I and other members will put forward today will be accepted by the Assembly so that we can have a piece of legislation that not only enshrines human rights into legislation but also provides us with a mechanism for using those rights and for allowing citizens to take up concerns.

The Democrats are committed to furthering respect for basic human rights standards. A human rights bill will help to achieve this goal. We should not be afraid to establish minimum legal standards that the government must meet in the manner in which it treats its people here in the ACT.

MRS BURKE (5.20): Mr Deputy Speaker, much of what is going to be said has already been said. I feel that in many ways it is a bit pointless to stand up here and say anything about this subject, given that we have a very adamant Chief Minister who has bowled into it without really bringing the Canberra community with him on it. I am just disappointed at that. I am all for positive change. I am all for improving things and making them better. We already have a system in place that possibly needs to be improved upon in some areas in which it is lacking. My concern is that, instead of doing so, we are going down a path into some brave new world and we do not really know what we are heading into. I am most concerned about that.

I am no lawyer and I stand to be corrected by two learned gentlemen in Mr Stefaniak and Mr Stanhope, the Chief Minister—one more learned than the other—but I have just looked through report 42 of the scrutiny of bills committee of 15 January 2004 and there are some issues in it that do not seem to have been resolved. To this stage, to my knowledge, the government has not put forward any amendments to rectify some of the clauses within the bill that the scrutiny of bills committee found to be quite concerning and, as the committee said, raised for debate in the Assembly questions about whether those elements give or would lead to insufficient recognition of personal rights and liberties.

I feel that this legislation is in a bit of a mess, quite frankly; but, for some reason, the Chief Minister has seen fit to proceed hastily with it. I do not know why. Is it to appease some groups that are lobbying him particularly hard? I am not sure. I do not know the reason or what is his agenda, but he is still proceeding with it in the face of leaving the majority of the Canberra community behind. I find that absolutely staggering. This issue is not one for plain sailing as there are so many flaws within this bill, but the government is going along this brave new path with its eyes wide shut.

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