April 3, 2025
Recommendations made after a mandatory review of Queensland’s Human Rights Act will not be implemented by the current State Government.
The review panel, headed by Professor Susan Rimmer from Griffith University, was appointed by the previous Labor Government.
It was the first independent review of the Act, which legislation had required be carried out.
The report recommended that the Act be amended to:
- Establish a right to adequate housing, a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and a right to live free from gender-based violence;
- Clarify individuals’ right to be free from involuntary medical and scientific treatments;
- Include a prohibition against victimisation of individuals, similar to the provisions of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991;
- Establish a right for victims of crime to receive respectful and informed treatment;
- Expand the monitoring, inquiry and complaint resolution roles of the Queensland Human Rights Commission.
It also urged the State Government to provide more resources to enhance the Queensland Human Rights Commission’s functions and remove exemptions in the Act in certain circumstances for Corrective Services and Youth Detention officers.
Prof Rimmer completed her report last September, just prior to the State Election.
On March 26, Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said that, following consideration of the report, the State Government had decided that its recommendations would not be implemented.
“As the report was finalised prior to the election of the Crisafulli Government, its recommendations relating to victims’ rights do not have regard to the government’s positive agenda on victims’ rights,” Mrs Frecklington wrote in a letter tabled with the review report.
“Significant enhancements to the rights of victims have already been legislated in the Making Queensland Safer Act 2024, and the government continues to prioritise the rights of victims as we deliver on our commitments made to Queenslanders at the election.”
The Act will face another mandatory review in four years.
