Mr
Peter Hallahan
Secretary,
Senate
Legal and Constitutional Committee
Room
S1.61
Parliament
House
Dear
Secretary,
I
would like to make the following submission to the Senate Legal and
Constitutional Committee Inquiry on the proposed Australian Human Rights
Commission Legislation Bill 2003 (the ‘AHRC Bill’) on behalf of the Australian
Human Rights Centre at The University of New South Wales, of which I am
Director.
The
Australian Human Rights Centre is concerned about a number of provisions in the
proposed legislations which it believes will erode the protection of human
rights in
1.
Provisions that
affect the ability of the Commission to intervene in court proceedings.
2.
Provisions affecting
the Commission’s ability to recommend compensation or damages payments.
3.
Provisions replacing
the current five specialist Commissioners with three Human Rights
Commissioners.
4.
Provisions concerning
the newly created ‘Complaints Commissioners’
In
registering the concern of the Australian Human Rights Centre at the proposed
legislation, I would also like it known that I, or a member of the Committee of
the Australian Human Rights Centre, would be available to the Senate Legal and
Constitutional Committee should it consider it necessary to question us further
about the grounds of our concern or the content of our submission.
Yours
faithfully,
Director