A step forward on anti-discrimination

Source:  Australian Ageing Agenda  22 November 2012

The federal Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, and Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Penny Wong, have released the ‘exposure draft’ for new consolidated anti-discrimination legislation which aims to simplify and streamline Australia’s current anti-discrimination laws.

The new draft Act aims to replace the five different anti-discrimination Acts [Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth); Age Discrimination Act 2004; Disability Discrimination Act 1992; Sex Discrimination Act 1984; and the Racial Discrimination Act 1975] currently in use, consolidating them into a single Act that will tackle all forms of discrimination on the same basis.

In releasing the exposure draft, Ministers Roxon and Wong explained that Australia’s current anti-discrimination laws spanning the five different acts all have different standards, definitions and rules which make the system unnecessarily complex and difficult to navigate.

They said the new act would provide better protections with a clearer and simpler regime for business, organisations and individuals.

“There will be no reduction in existing protections and the highest current standards will be consistently applied and enforced across the full range of discriminatory practices,” said Senator Wong.

“It’s ridiculous that at the moment, an African woman for example, who has been discriminated against needs to separately make complaints of sex and race discrimination – now she can make a single complaint recognising the discrimination was because she was both a woman and African.”

Senator Wong said the consolidated legislation will make it easier for individuals to seek redress when they’ve been discriminated against, and will provide the Commission with the ability to dismiss unmeritorious complaints, providing business with certainty. more