Page 1562 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 2012
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The report also found that the operation of the act has led to improvements in laws and policies.
By impacting on political debate and consideration of policy issues by government, the act is steadily changing the culture of the public service. This is particularly evident since 1 January 2009, when the direct obligations on public authorities commenced.
It is a credit to all who engage with the Human Rights Act that over the first five years of its operation the act has had a tangible and positive impact on the protection of human rights of people living in the ACT. However, as the report identifies, there are still further improvements to be made to the Human Rights Act. Both the government responses that I table today include measures to strengthen the ACT’s human rights framework.
The five-year review made 30 recommendations across six areas: the duty to comply with human rights, the legislative process, the human rights commissioner, government culture, measuring human rights progress, and courts and tribunals. The government response I am tabling today fully or partially supports five of those recommendations and supports in principle another 11.
The government is already taking a number of initiatives to develop and promote a human rights culture in the ACT. In accordance with report recommendation 4, the government will be proposing legislation to amend section 28 of the Human Rights Act to expand the requirements to reasonable limits set under “law”, as distinct from the current requirement of “under territory law”. I expanded upon this in my tabling of the government bill in this regard this morning.
As I have reported previously to the Assembly, the Human Rights Unit of my directorate is currently developing a human rights toolkit to assist ACT public authorities to comply with their obligations under the act. The toolkit will serve as a first point of reference for policy and decision makers in ACT public authorities to assist them to recognise when a policy or decision may engage a protected right.
This work supports a number of the recommendations made in the report, including part of recommendation 5, that the guidelines for ACT departments be updated; recommendation 9, that measures be put in place to support community organisations subject to the public authorities’ provision; and recommendation 20, that an accessible and up-to-date resource be created to assist public servants to understand human rights principles and developments.
Over the past couple of years the Human Rights Unit has adopted a policy of early engagement with public authorities to ensure that responsible agencies consider human rights issues at the beginning of the policy and legislation development process. The toolkit will provide a further valuable resource to underpin early engagement practices and enhance human rights competence across ACT public authorities.
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