Draft Federal Anti-Discrimination Laws to be Put on Hold

After submissions have closed on the draft Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012, it was reported today by Lawyers Weekly that the movement of the bill into Parliament has been put on hold due to the large number of submissions received.

The consultation period for the exposure draft bill ended recently and in a media release today (21 March 2013) the Attorney General stated that "the Bill required “deeper consideration” after a Senate Committee received almost 500 submissions in response to the draft legislation from individuals and organisations, including the Law Council of Australia (LCA)." This constituted almost 100 different submissions for changes to the proposed law.

Arguments have been raised in many forums from employment law experts claiming "the Bill’s reversal of the burden of proof to the person accused of discrimination and possible restrictions on behaviour deemed to be ‘offensive’ as “burdensome” and “wholly subjective” to the Human Rights Law Reform Commission executive director, De Kretser, who claimed the decision to delay the reforms is a failure by the Government to deliver on a key plank of its Human Rights Framework, a suite of reforms introduced in response to a national inquiry in 2009.

To read more, click here for the media release and the critique article.

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