December 2021 A reform agenda for federal discrimination laws When the Commission’s powers are viewed through such a lens, they all sit at the bottom: at the level of persuasion, including education and training. The Commission is a ‘gatekeeper’,81 most of the Commission’s work comprising complaint handling and education and awareness raising about human rights law and the complaint handling pathways. The Commission does not have enforcement powers. Nor does it have the ability to investigate possible systemic discrimination law abuses. It has an inquiry power, but this is limited, and can only result in a report with non-binding recommendations. While agencies in areas like competition law and occupational health and safety have a broad range of powers to enforce compliance, ‘successive governments have chosen not to invest the AHRC with equivalent powers’.82 The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry supported the kinds of persuasive powers the Commission has, as important non-regulatory measures, but also supported ‘recourse to regulation where these non-regulatory measures have failed to achieve policy objectives’.83 A key question in developing a reform agenda for discrimination law is to ask what improvements are needed to the regulatory framework to build a more effective discrimination law regime, without reducing protections? 40 FREE AND EQUAL An Australian Conversation on Human Rights