The name for a Human Rights Act in Australia | The Daily Aus

So joining me on the podcast this morning is Professor Justine Nolan director of the Australian Human Rights Institute Justine thanks for joining us this morning thanks Sam great to be here I want to start this conversation just by setting out the framework of what's currently there CU we're a liberal democracy that doesn't have a Bill of.

Rights or any sort of document with this kind of title like a human rights act how are human rights protected by law right now so we're the only Western liberal democracy without a human rights act and at the moment we have sort of a patchwork system of Rights protection there's a few rights in the Constitution but our constitution is nothing like you.

Know the American or the French Constitution which is eloquent on rights some rights are sort of um protected by common law which is judg made law um and then there's sort of some implied rights so it's this Patchwork of system and there's a very limited number of Rights and not really what you'd consider human rights that are protected at the moment.

And has that made it hard to enforce human rights in court cases yeah so you you get this Gap I mean we Australia does some things very well so we have extensive legislation on discrimination law you know lots of different types of discrimination law but when you fall outside those boundaries then people victims just simply don't have Pathways.

Or obvious Pathways around human rights so there are yeah there are massive gaps and enforcement has long been a problem in Australia but something I always think about is that there are these big International documents and these big International documents like the universal Declaration of Human Rights Australia is a signatory to that does.

That not kind of fill that Gap so there's major human rights treaties and and Australia is you know signed those and ratified those who are bound by them but what you happen in the system is that you have international law but for it to work in Australia and for it to be you know for us to sort of use it as a pathway for remedy then you've got to.

Turn that into law so for example international law so discrimination law we've taken parts of the international Covenant on civil and political rights and made extensive discrimination laws around that around sex age disability but there's a whole Suite of other rights and particularly economic and social rights like Social Security.

Housing food water which we have never translated international law so all of those International laws guide us and provide us with a framework but in terms of enforcement they mean little in Australia and I guess what you're talking about there is if you're somebody impacted by one of those areas that you just rattled off how do you.

Actually go about being remedied being fixed in that area yeah there's no clear pathway and so you know what we have in the system in Australia is largely some rights but without responsibility there's no responsibility there's no accountability and then that totally makes these rights illegitimate because they can't be enforced can you before we.

Get to the potential solution that we're going to discuss can you just give me an example of one of these areas that you think would really benefit from its own law um so for example housing rights it's a massive issue in Australia at the moment particularly around cost of living crisis where we're seeing evictions rise so there's sporadic laws.

Around Australia they differ from state to state there's no National laws on housing no national standards and um you know largely at the moment eviction laws tend to favor the landlord and not those who are most vulnerable and so that's an a situation where there are international you know rights around it and it sets out criteria about what.

Housing rights should look like in terms of accessibility and um culturally appropriate and all of these types of things but Australia doesn't have anything like that and so then last week a parliamentary committee proposed the government establish Australia's first everever human rights law the Human Rights Act what would that actually look.

Like so the idea and this is really historic what this um Parliament committee is is proposing is the idea is that there is a human rights act that would apply to all Australians everybody who is here citizens and non-citizens everybody within Australia and when you boil it down to what it basically means is that what we're we're agreeing to do.

Is protect people's and respect people's basic dignity and then we do that through recognizing their right to free speech their right to housing their right to Social Security and we have standards that are National that everybody um applies to everybody and we're also setting up a pathway where if things go wrong and they do we know.

We've had multiple Royal commissions which show this in the last few years then those people have a pathway to seeking remedy so that sounds pretty straightforward to me like it kind of sounds like it would make sense that you'd put all of that seems like we've agreed to it at an international level why are we then the only Western.

Democracy to have not done this into law and why has it taken so long hello I'm James and I produced the video you're watching if you're enjoying what you're watching we'd love it if you considered subscribing and checking us out on our other platforms it would really help in getting the word out about what we're doing here at TDA thanks very much and.

Now back to the Deep dive well that's a really good question and I think it's sometimes when you hear great ideas and people are like yeah don't we already have that for many years Australians would think about yeah human rights but they're probably just people overseas that need them not us everything is fine here and people in Australia now think.

Well actually I have rights that need to be respected and when something goes wrong I need to be able to you know get remedy in relation to that so I can tell from your answers that you're in favor of a human rights act and that you kind of want want to see it happening what criticism or commentary have you heard in the discussions you've been having.

About the act that that could perhaps be the other side of the coin sure so the most obvious one is that we don't need it all our you know we Australia is a liberal democracy people are in a great place everything is working there's there are a number of Rights there are a number of laws that we have that we can um you know pursue in relation to.

Problems but then I would say well you know if I look at just the last few years we've had a royal commission into Robo debt into Age Care and disability which have just been startling in terms of the impacts on people people's lives have been destroyed and you see the the abuses that people are suffering and so logically you say well then the system.

We have isn't working we need something else it's not that it's nothing there but we need to plug the gaps and we need to have a holistic framework so we've got three states that have already had them for a number of years and that argument just has not been seen through there's been consistent you know causes that have pushed under it but in no.

Stretch of an imagination has sort of been floodgates in relation to Human Rights claims it seems to me that a really important part of this discussion is the pr effect of a human rights act and the ability for it to bring human rights into the consciousness of everybody when it's part of an act do you agree that that's a significant part.

Of things the kind of public perception of Human Rights yeah so you say PR I would say culture like a sort of what we difference between you and me not media trained I think what it is is starting to bring into Australia that Australia is need recognize it needs and I think and clearly the majority of people want is a rights culture where.

You know human rights sometimes can be scary to people because they feel like what is that you know what you know we're giving special rights to people at its Essence what it boils down to is that we recognize that everybody has inherent dignity and we're going to find ways to respect that and respect you know their fundamental freedoms around.

That so I I think it's really important the point you raised that we that we start to we're a mature democracy that we have that that we have that conversation and that we recognize that as a culture this is where we're moving and we're joining everybody else on the global stage two more questions from me from here where do you see this policy.

Discussion going like what does the road map look like so this is a report from a parliamentary committee on human rights which is recommending this historic change now we await the government response um so ideally then we have the government coming in and saying yes this is what we do and then we set a pathway up for reform the Australian Human.

Rights Commission has been doing work for a number of years um setting out a pathway of what that would look like um there's you know whole coalition of Civil Society organizations looking at the you know the Charter of Rights um movement so I think what we'll see is um policy and advocacy discussions and we will wait a government response that.

Will then you know provide a framework for what happens next final question so you are actually my law professor um at the University of New South Wales um you now do work with the Australian Human Rights Institute this is just part of the human rights landscape in Australia what's the biggest challenge facing the human rights sect.

In Australia like what do we need does it need more funding um does it need more literacy where are you seeing the biggest opportunity for us to really make make a move both of those things I think you know with funding comes resources that enhances Your Capacity to to send a message out but I think the the biggest thing is that question that.

We just had at the moment this acceptance of that human rights are relevant and needed in Australia and I really do think that we are there now and you know if you look at how the world is exploding around us and discussions in Australia around many issues whether it's around indigenous issues racism housing rights the cost of.

Living all of these are going to be U more mature discussions uh more accessible discussions when you put them in a rights framework and you respect people to have those thoughts to have those opinions and the idea of a human rights act is that you know it's really a preventative measure as well that you start to embed in people this notion.

That we we we need this and we have this literacy so I I do think sort of literacy and education is a huge part of um human rights in Australia and yeah if you want to give us money please send it Professor Justin Nolan from the Australian Human Rights Institute thanks so much for joining us thanks Sam

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