Human Rights Scrutiny in the Australian Parliament

A new report exposes the failure of the Federal parliament in the 2019 –22 term to fulfil its promise to properly consider human rights before voting on legislation.

The report, authored by RMIT Faculty of Law academic Adam Fletcher and commissioned by the Human Rights Law Centre, highlights that 60% of legislation with human rights concerns was made into law with no review completed by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.

The report recommends legislating a Charter of Human Rights so that human rights must be considered when making Australian laws. It also calls for changes to Parliamentary procedure to ensure there is proper parliamentary scrutiny before Parliament votes on proposed legislation.

Read the full Human Rights Scrutiny in the Australian Parliament report here