Submission to the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Standards

This joint parliamentary committee was initiated on the recommendation of Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins in her Set the Standard report, which followed serious allegations of gender-based violence taking place inside Parliament. It follows that a significant focus of this review should be on preventing gender-based violence. However, this is not the only issue that needs to be addressed in order to create a Commonwealth Parliament that will rebuild public trust in our political system.

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Submission on the Tasmanian OPCAT Implementation Bill 2021

The Change the Record coalition, the Human Rights Law Centre and the Tasmanian Aboriginal Legal Service welcome the decision of the Tasmanian Government to establish the Tasmanian National Preventive Mechanism under standalone legislation.

In this submission we set out a number of ongoing concerns however with provisions in the draft Bill in respect of the NPM’s operational independence, and suggest additional amendments aimed at ensuring the NPM is OPCAT compliant and can effectively fulfil its functions.

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Expansion of flawed program should be rejected

The Human Rights Law Centre and the National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services Forum provided a joint submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights’ inquiry into a legislative instrument which would amend the criteria for the discriminatory and punitive ParentsNext program, but do nothing to address the fundamental flaws in the program or its impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

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Hands Off Our Charities oppose Government regulations to deregister charities

The implications of the proposed regulations, which significantly broaden the scope of activities for which charities can be deregistered, will be felt by virtually every one of the 58,000 charities registered in Australia. The proposal is a major overreach and the need for further regulation has not been (and in our view cannot be) properly explained. No obvious benefit will accrue, yet there is a significant cost to charities and, by extension, Australian civil society.

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