Final Senate report on exposure draft Commonwealth Anti-Discrimination Bill

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee last week released its final report following its inquiry into the exposure draft Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012. Of note, the majority report recommends the removal of the controversial 'offends and insults clause,' which critics have said would seriously damage the right to freedom of speech.

The committee has also recommended further expansion of the law beyond the existing provisions of the draft bill - for instance, the inclusion of new protected attributes 'intersex status,' 'domestic violence' and 'irrelevant criminal record.'

It also recommended that religious groups be stripped of the right to discriminate against individuals based on the grounds of sexuality, political opinion or religious beliefs. "In the committee's view, discrimination on religious grounds is justifiable if it is reasonable and proportionate in all the circumstances," the report says. "This does not mean, however, that discriminatory conduct by religious organisations should always be lawful. 

The Coalition members of the committee produced a dissenting report, calling the draft bill "impossibly wide and dangerously vague," and arguing that the whole bill be scrapped due to "serious flaws" and "fundamental errors...of both a technical and substantive kind." 

The Committee received close to 3,500 public submissions into the draft legislation.

Track Draft Legislation using TimeBase’s LawOne Service, which provides Australian Legislation in a consistent and reliable format. Contact us for a free trial.