[Greens-Media] Human Rights Commission - getting it right

[Manderson, Roland]

ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey Media Release

23 August 2005
 
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Human Rights Commission - getting it right


ACT Greens MLA Dr Deb Foskey today welcomed the establishment of the Human Rights and Service Review Commission, which will co-locate four Commissioners covering human rights and discrimination, community and disability, health and children and young people.  However, Dr Foskey was disappointed that the ACT Government has not listened to feedback and suggestions from community groups and community consultations. 

"I will put forward a number of amendments to the ACT Government's Bills establishing the Commission, to ensure it meets community expectation, and vulnerable groups are better looked after" Dr Foskey said.  

"The Human Rights and Service Review Commission is the product of many years of activism by people who believed the most powerless in Canberra need better support. Unfortunately the ACT Government has not listened to the people best placed to help them get this legislation right." 

"Community consultation on the new Children and Young People's Commissioner, for example, clearly called for a proactive role with broad functions.  The community identified the promotion of rights and community education as a primary role of this Commissioner, which is clearly not reflected in the Bill before the Assembly.  The Government's legislation gives individual Commissioners and the Commission overall, a very narrow role, focused mainly on complaints handling and protecting the rights of people within service systems." 

"My amendments will broaden the work of Commissioners to: promote human rights, identify and examine issues that affect vulnerable groups, and make recommendations to government and non-government agencies on how to deal with these groups.  My amendments will give Commissioners a statutory basis for being proactive in promoting the rights and welfare of vulnerable people, in line with community expectations."  

"The Government currently proposes to allow the work of each individual Commissioner to be overruled by the rest of the Commissioners - which could see them competing for common resources. This is not the way to ensure that vulnerable people in our community are best represented." 

"I will also put forward amendments to make sure that individual Commissioners are given the power to decide when they will conduct inquiries, make reports to the Minister, and refer individual complaints to conciliation" said Dr Foskey.


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Roland Manderson   Media Advisor
ACT   Greens    MLA  Deb  Foskey  
Legislative Assembly for the ACT 
ph(02)62050551      m 0412241379
==== www.act.greens.org.au ===== 
  
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