Australian Human Rights Commission Annual Report November 2022 4. The year in review 4.1 From the President The 2021–22 financial year has been an extremely challenging one for the Australian Human Rights Commission, as we have sought to secure the institution’s financial sustainability, faced threats to our international standing and institutional integrity, and strived to meet the demands for our investigation and conciliation services, for Australians’ COVID-related issues as well as an increase in discrimination related complaints. Over the past year, financial pressures that had been building over many years culminated in an unsustainable financial situation which was reported to the Attorney-General, the Minister responsible for the Commission, as a significant issue. Through independent review it became clear that, for some time, the Commission has been structurally underfunded and that we had also been operating beyond our annual funding sources. This meant that we were no longer able to maintain the staffing levels that would enable us to undertake our statutory functions properly. A cash injection of $16 million was approved by the Government in the MYEFO budget process in December 2021 as an initial step to address the financial sustainability of the Commission. Alongside this, the Commission undertook substantial changes to strengthen our systems, procedures, and operations over the entire financial year period. We significantly reduced our expenditure, by first freezing recruitment and noncritical expenditure, then by reducing our staffing profile. As a result, the work programs of our Commissioners was heavily reliant on the ability to source shortterm funding from external sources. All Commission work areas are operating with reduced capacity that is limiting our ability to deliver our functions. With the support of a Tripartite Steering Committee, of the Attorney-General’s Department, the Department of Finance and the Commission, the evidence base for the long-term funding needs of the Commission has been prepared for government’s consideration in the October 2022 Federal Budget. Our institutional integrity has also been under challenge, with the Commission’s ‘A status’ as a national human rights institution (NHRI) under threat. In March 2022, the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions conducted its regular, five yearly review of the Commission’s compliance with the Paris Principles relating to the status of national 17