Resources

What you will find on this page:

• Primary Documents
• Statement of Reasons
• Hansard of ACT Legislative Assembly
• Scrutiny Reports of ACT Legislative Assembly
• Useful Articles/Books
• ACT Websites
• Other Australian Human Rights Websites
• International Human Rights Websites
• Other PDF Copies of Certain ACTHRA Cases

Primary Documents

ACT Human Rights Act 2004

• The ACT Human Rights Act 2004 (as at 2 February 2009) [pdf ]
• Media Release 17 February 2004 attaching letter from John Howard
• Explanatory Memorandum to the ACT Human Rights Bill 2003 [pdf ]
• Second Reading Speech 18 November 2003 [pdf ]
• Report of the Bill of Rights Consultative Committee : Towards an ACT Human Rights Act, May 2003 [pdf ]

Review of the ACT Human Rights Act

• Report of the 12 Month Review of the Act June 2006 [pdf ]
• Discussion paper for 12 Month Review of the Act March 2006 [pdf ]

Human Rights Amendment Bill 2007

• Documents and links

Audit Reports

• Human Rights Audit of Corrections facilities, July 2007 [pdf ]
• Human Rights Audit of Quamby Youth Detention Centre, June 2005 [WORD ]

Earlier proposals for a bill of rights for the ACT

• Bill of Rights Bill 1995 proposed by former Attorney-General Terry Connolly
• Explanatory Statement to the 1995 Bill
• Jack Waterford's draft Constitution for the ACT 1988 (full original document)
• Extract of the Waterford draft (re-typed and easier to read)

Statements of Reasons

Section 37 of the Human Rights Act 2004 requires each Government bill introduced in the Legislative Assembly to be accompanied by a Statement of Compatibility by the Attorney-General. These statements have not included detailed reasons except in two instances:

• Mental Health (Treatment and Care) Amendment Bill 2005 (ACT) - Compatibility Statement
• Terrorism (Extraordinary Temporary Powers) Bill 2006 (ACT) - Compatibility Statement

Following the ACT Greens/Labor Agreement for the 7th Legislative Assembly, each s37 Compatibility Statement must now be accompanied by a detailed Statement of Reasons, subject to resources. (More information)

This section will present the Statements of Reasons for Government bills where available, along with links to related comments by the Scrutiny Committee and associated Government responses.

Crimes (Bill Posting) Amendment Bill 2008 (ACT)

• Statement of Reasons - [forthcoming]
• Scrutiny Committee comments: Report No. 3 2009 (pgs 15-16)

Crimes (Murder) Amendment Bill 2008 (ACT)

• Statement of Reasons
• Scrutiny Committee comments: Report No. 2 2009 (pgs 16-18); Report No. 3 2009 (Response by the Attorney-General, 10 Feb 2009)

Other related information can be found on the ACT Legislation register website - http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/default.asp

Hansard

Extracts from ACT Legislative Assembly Hansard with references to the Human Rights Act 2004 or human rights in general.

UPDATE: Due to recent changes in the electronic format in which Hansard is being made available by the ACT government it will no longer be possible to provide the extracted text of the debates on the website. We will instead post a sign posted outline of each debate which indicates when human rights issues or the Human Rights Act 2004 is discussed by the Assembly with a guide as to where these can be found in the full text of each debate. Where possible on occasion we will also provide the occasional full text excerpts of important discussions.

Signposts

• 2008 - 2009 - Week 6 - Part 3 (7 May 2009), Part 4 (11 May 2009)
• 2008 - 2009 - Week 5 - Excerpt of discussion from 1 April 2009
• 2008 - 2009 - Week 5 - Part 1 (31 March 2009), Part 2 (1 April 2009), Part 3 (2 April 2009)
• 2008 - 2009 - Week 4 - Part 1 (24 March 2009), Part 3 (26 March 2009)
• 2008 - 2009 - Week 3 - Part 2 (25 February 2009), Part 3 (26 February 2009)
• 2008 - 2009 - Week 2 - Part 1 (10 February 2009), Part 2 (11 Feburary 2009), Part 3 (12 February 2009)
• 2008 - 2009 - Week 1 - Excerpt of discussion from 10 December 2008
• 2008 - 2009 - Week 1 - Part 1 (10 December 2008), Part 2 (11 December 2008)

Extracts

• 2008: Part 4 (week 10)
• 2008: Part 3 (week 9)
• 2008: Part 2 (weeks 7 -8)
• 2008: Part 1 (weeks 1 - 6)
• 2007: Part 2 (weeks 7 - 13)
• 2007: Part 1 (weeks 1 - 6)
• 2006: Part 2 (weeks 7 - 13)
• 2006: Part 1 (weeks 1 - 6)
• 2005
• 2004

Scrutiny Reports

Under section 38 of the Human Rights Act 2004, the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs (performing the duties of a Scrutiny of Bills and Subordinate Legislation Committee) must report to the Assembly on any human rights issues raised by Bills. The Committee's reports are available here for the 6th Assembly and here for the 7th Assembly.

We have summarised the Committee's comments on human rights issues and the government responses in a table available here. (The table covers scrutiny reports from the beginning of 2007 to date.)

Useful Articles/Books

See also the publications of the project.

Albrechtsen, J, 'An Australian Bill of Rights by Stealth?' (Speech delivered at the Proceedings of the 18th Conference of the Samuel Griffiths Society, Canberra, 26-28 May 2006)

Bagaric, M and Faris, P: ‘Charter of Human Rights: More punch than expected?’ (2007) 81:7 Law Institute Journal 64.

Bayne, P, ‘Pre-enactment dialogue about proposed laws under the influence of the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT)’ [pdf ] (Paper presented at the Conference Assessing the First Year of the ACT Human Rights Act, ANU, 29 June 2005)

Bayne, Peter, 'The Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT) and administrative law: a preliminary view' (2007) 52 AIAL Forum 3 (text not available online)

Blake, G: ‘God, Caesar and human rights: Freedom of religion in Australia in the 21st century’ (2009) 31 Australian Bar Review 279.

Bluck, P, ‘The Year of Living Relatively Uneventfully’ [pdf ] (Paper presented at the Conference Assessing the First Year of the ACT Human Rights Act, ANU, 29 June 2005)

Bronitt, S, 'The Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT): a 'Claytons Bill of Rights' or new Magna Carta?' [pdf ] (2004) 28 Criminal Law Journal 325

Butler , A S, 'The ACT human rights Act: a New Zealander's view' [pdf ] (2004) 194 Ethos 16

Byrnes, Andrew, The protection of human rights in NSW through the Parliamentary process – a review of the recent performance of the NSW Parliament’s Legislation Review Committee, [2009] University of New South Wales Faculty of Law Research Series 43. Paper presented at the 2009 Protecting Human Rights Conference (Sydney, Australia). [pdf]

Byrnes, Andrew, ‘The ACT Bill of Rights: its relevance and potential effectiveness’ (Paper presented at the State Legal Convention, Adelaide, 22-23 July 2004) [pdf]

Campbell, Tom, 'Does Anyone Win under a Bill of Rights? A Response to Hilary Charlesworth's "Who Wins Under a Bill of Rights"' (2006) 25 University of Queensland Law Journal 55.

Charlesworth, H, 'Who Wins Under a Bill of Rights' (2006) 25 University of Queensland Law Journal 39.

Charlesworth, H , “Human Rights and Statutory Interpretation” in Statutory Interpretation: Australian Approaches( [pdf](2005) S. Corcoran & S. Bottomley eds, Federation Press, Sydney

Charlesworth, H “Australia’s First Bill of Rights: the Australian Capital Territory’s Human Rights Act”(2006) in Protecting Rights without a Bill of Rights: Institutional performance and reform ; T. Campbell, J. Goldsworthy & A.Stone eds, Ashgate, Dartmouth, pp. 289-304

Connolly, T, "Golden Thread or Tattered Fabric: Bail and the Presumption of Innocence"
(Paper presented to the Law Council of Australia National Access to Justice and Pro Bono Conference Melbourne 11-12 August 2006)

Connolly, T, ‘Practicing Criminal Law under the Human Rights Act- No Rogues Charter’ [pdf ] (Paper presented to the Australian Prosecutors Conference, Canberra, 14 July 2005)

Debeljak, J: ‘Balancing Rights in a Democracy: The Problems with Limitations and Overrides of Rights in the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006’ (2008) 32 Melbourne University Law Review 422.

Debeljak, J: ‘Parliamentary Sovereignty and Dialogue under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities: Drawing the Line between Judicial Interpretation and Judicial Law-Making’ (2007) 33:1 Monash University Law Review 9.

Evans, C and Evans, S: ‘Legal redress under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities’ (2006) 17 Public Law Review 264.

Evans, C, ‘Human Rights Act and Administrative Law’ [pdf ] (Paper presented at the Conference Assessing the First Year of the ACT Human Rights Act, ANU, 29 June 2005)

Evans, C, 'Responsibility for rights: the ACT Human Rights Act' [pdf] (2004) 32 Federal Law Review 291

Evans, Simon, 'Should Australian Bills of Rights Protect Property Rights?' (2006) 31 Alternative Law Journal 19 (text not available online)

Faunce, TA 'ACT Human Rights Act: Legality of Abortion Remains with the legislative Assembly' [pdf ] (2003) Canberra Times 29 September p11

Galligan, B and Larking E: ‘Rights Protection: The Bill of Rights Debate and Rights Protection in Australia’s States and Territories’ (2007) 28 Adelaide Law Review 177.

Gans, J 'Scrutiny of bills under a bills of rights: is Victoria's Charter model the way forward?', Paper presented at the Australia-New Zealand Scrutiy of Legislation Conference, 10 August 2009

Gans, J ‘Evidence under Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights’, University of Melbourne Legal Studies Research Paper 260, presented at the Evidence Law, Criminal Justice and Adjudication Colloquium, Conference of the Faculty of Law, UNSW, Sydney, 2007. Later published in: (2008) 19 Public Law Review 197.

Gasanova, Beata, 'Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT): Assessing the Impact in the Courts' (Paper prepared for assessment in Human Rights Law in Australia course, October 2007)

Gelber, K ‘Beyond Australia’s First Bill of Rights’ [pdf ] (Paper presented at the Conference Assessing the First Year of the ACT Human Rights Act, ANU, 29 June 2005)

Henckels, C: ‘Exclusion of evidence obtained in breach of the right to privacy: Will Victoria’s Charter protect the rights of criminal defendants?’ (2008) 19 Public Law Review 234.

Higgins, T 'Address to New Practitioners'[PDF] (Speech given at the Admission Ceremony for new practitioners, Supreme Court of the ACT, 17 February 2006)

Higgins, T, 'Address to New Practitioners' [PDF] (Speech given at the Admission Ceremony for new practitioners, Supreme Court of the ACT, 21 April 2006)

Higgins, T, 'Australia's First Bill of Rights - Testing Judicial Independence and the Human Rights Imperative' [pdf ] (Paper presented at the National Press Club 2004)

Hudson, A: ‘The Australian Capital territory leads the way with its Bill of Rights’ (2004) 78:12 Law Institute Journal.

Kelly, E, ‘Government in the ACT: A Human Rights Dialogue’ [pdf] (Paper presented at the Conference Assessing the First Year of the ACT Human Rights Act, ANU, 29 June 2005)

Kelly, E, 'Human Rights Act 2004: a new dawn for rights protection?' [pdf] (2004) 41 AIAL Forum 30

Kirby, M: ‘An Australian charter of rights - answering some of the critics’ (2008) 31 Australian Bar Review 149.

Kirby, M, 'Consensus and Dissent in Australia' (Speech given at Hawke Lecture, Adelaide, 10 October 2007)

Kostakidis, L and Williams, G, 'Bills of responsibilities: is one needed to counter the 'excesses' of the ACT Human Rights Act 2004?' [pdf ] (2005) 30 Alternative Law Journal 58

Leibenberg, S: Beyond Civil and Political Rights - Protecting Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: The South African Experience (Paper presented at the Protecting Human Rights Conference, Uni of Melbourne, 25 Sept 2007)

McCoy, G, ‘Sibylline observations: the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT)’ [pdf ] (Paper presented at the Conference Assessing the First Year of the ACT Human Rights Act, ANU, 29 June 2005)

McGregor, S: ‘Public bodies and human rights’ (2008) 82:6 Law Institute Journal 62.

McHugh, M, 'Does Australia Need a Bill of Rights?', (Speech given at Law Week Oration, University of Melbourne, 15 May 2007)

McKinnon, G 'Would a Bill of Rights Enhance Social Cohesion in Australia ' in Jupp, J., Nieuwenhuysen, J., Dawson , E. (eds.) Social Cohesion in Australia . Melbourne : Cambridge University Press, 2007 pp.191-203

McKinnon, G 'An Opportunity Missed?' Comment on SI bhnf CC v KS bhnf IS [2005] ACTSC 125[pdf], [word version] Canberra Law Review, Vol 9, 2006, p21-30

McKinnon, G, ‘Strengthening the Human Rights Act' [pdf ] (Paper presented at the Human Rights Office Community Forum, 1 July 2005

McKinnon, G ‘The ACT Human Rights Act: the impact in the Courts Legislation and Policy’ [pdf 1.2mb], Democratic Audit Website

McKinnon, G 'The ACT Human Rights Act: The First Year'

McKinnon, G 'The ACT Human Rights Act: The Second Year'

Minty, R, ‘Saved by the Bill?: the effect of the ACT HRA on legislative provisions which reverse the onus of proof’ [pdf] (Thesis submitted for degree of Bachelor of Laws (Honours), ANU 2005)

Pham, K: ' Lets talk about Rights: "Dialogue" Bills of Rights', Report prepared for Senator Stott-Despoja, ANU Internship Program 2006

Refshauge, R: Impact on Criminal Law and Procedure (Paper presented at the Protecting Human Rights Conference, Uni of Melbourne, 25 Sept 2007)

Refshauge, R: Criminal Justice in a Climate of Fear, Paper presented to the 10th Annual Criminal Law Congress, Perth, October 2006

Refshauge, R, 'The Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT) and the Criminal Law' (Speech given at Tasmaninan Law Reform Institute, 26 October 2006)

Refshauge, R, ‘The ACT Human Rights Act and the Criminal Law’ [pdf ] (Paper presented at the Conference Assessing the First Year of the ACT Human Rights Act, ANU, 29 June 2005)

Rice, S, 'The feral judge furphy in the human rights debate [pdf], Online Opinion, 5 June 2008 http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7459

Rolls, A: ‘Avoiding tragedy: Would the decision of the High Court in Al-Kateb have been any different if Australia had a Bill of Rights like Victoria?’ (2008) 19 Public Law Review 119.

Spigelman, J, 'Statutory Interpretation and Human Rights' (Speeches given at 2008 McPherson Lectures, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 10 - 12 March 2008): The Common Law Bill of Rights, The Application of Quasi-Constitutional Laws, Legitimate and Spurious Interpretation

Spigelman, J, 'Blackstone, Burke, Bentham and the Human Rights Act 2004' [pdf ] (2005) 26 Australian Bar Review 1

Stanhope, J, 'The Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT): making a stand in the ACT' [pdf ] (2005) 30 Alternative Law Journal 54

Stanhope, J, (Paper presented at the Conference Assessing the First Year of the ACT Human Rights Act, ANU, 29 June 2005) [pdf ]

Stanhope, J (Speech to the Human Rights Office Community Forum, Canberra, 1 May 2006)

Stanton , M: ‘Fighting Phantoms: A democratic defence of human rights legislation’ (2007) 32:3 Alternative Law Journal 138.

Stellios, J: State/Territory Human Rights Protection in a Federal Judicial System (Paper presented at the Protecting Human Rights Conference, Uni of Melbourne, 25 Sept 2007). Later published in: (2008) 19 Public Law Review 52.

Tate, P: ‘Protecting Human Rights in a Federation’ (2007) 33:2 Monash University Law Review 220.

Tham, J-C and Ewing, K D: ‘Limitations of a Charter of Rights in the Age of Counter Terrorism’ (2007) 31 Melbourne University Law Review 462.

Tobin, J: ‘Rights Resources’ (2008) 83:5 Law Institute Journal 64.

Walton, M, 'Human rights: what's been left out of Australia's first Bill of Rights?' [pdf ] (2004) 29 Alternative Law Journal 195 (Spigelman J J 2005)

Watchirs, H 'Protecting Rights in the ACT: The First 18 Months of the ACT Human Rights Act 2004 [PDF] (2006) New Matilda

Watchirs, H, ‘Review of the First Year of the ACT Human Rights Act’ [pdf] Democratic Audit Website, 2005.

Wilkins, S: ‘Constitutional Limits on Bills of Rights Introduced by a State or Territory’ (2007) 35:3 Federal Law Review 431.

Williams, G, ‘Beyond Australia’s First Bill of Rights: the Victorian experience’ [pdf ] (Paper presented at the Conference Assessing the First Year of the ACT Human Rights Act, ANU, 29 June 2005)

Williams, George, 'The Victorian Charter of Rights and Responsibilities: Origins and Scope' [pdf ] (December 2006) 30.3 Melbourne University Law Review 880

Winterton, G, 'The ACT Bill of Rights' [pdf ] (2004) 7.2 Constitutional Law And Policy Review 47

ACT websites

ACT Human Rights Commission	http://www.hrc.act.gov.au
Human Rights Unit, DJACS	http://www.jcs.act.gov.au/humanrightsact/indexbor.html
ACT Supreme Court	http://www.courts.act.gov.au/supreme/
ACT Legislation Register	http://www.legislation.act.gov.au
ACT Legislative Assembly	http://www.parliament.act.gov.au

Other Australian human rights websites

Human Rights Law Resource Centre	http://www.hrlrc.org.au/
A Human Rights Act for Australia Campaign	http://www.humanrightsact.com.au/
The University of Melbourne - Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies - Papers from the "Legislatures and the Protection of Human Rights" Conference	http://cccs.law.unimelb.edu.au/index.cfm?objectId=9E065F87-1422-207C-BAC23913D7DB519D
Victorian Charter of Rights Consultation	http://www.justice.vic.gov.au/humanrights
Gilbert & Tobin Centre for Public Law	http://www.gtcentre.unsw.edu.au
UNSW Australian Human Rights Centre	http://www.ahrcentre.org/
Castan Centre for Human Rights Law	http://www.law.monash.edu.au/castancentre/
Jumbunna, UTS -Indigenous peoples and an Australian Bill of Rights	http://www.jumbunna.uts.edu.au/research/public3.html

International Human Rights websites

Interights (international human rights)	http://www.interights.org
London School of Economics Centre for the Study of Human Rights	http://www.lse.ac.uk/humanrights
Crown Office Row Human Rights Update ( UK)	http://www.humanrights.org.uk/5/
Doughty Street database of UK cases	http://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/hrarp/summary/index.cfm

Other - PDF Copies of Certain ACT HRA Cases (also located in our case database)

Thornton v The Director of Public Prosecutions [2009] ACAT 40 [pdf] (23 October 2009)

Thomson v ACT Planning and Land Authority (Administrative Review) [2009] ACAT 38[pdf] (2 October 2009)

Firestone v Australian National University (Discrimination Act 1991) [2009] ACAT 27 (28 August 2

009)

Daniel Emlyn-Jones and Federal Capital Press [Intervener: Human Rights Commission] [2009] ACTDT 2 (31 July 2009)