Australian Human Rights Commission Annual Report 2021–22 Achieving the implementation of Respect@Work has been a multi-year endeavour and, over this coming financial year, we will see improvements to a range of laws and policies to achieve a more effective response to sexual harassment and the building of a preventative culture to ensure it does not occur in the first place. The year ahead will also be an exciting one for the Commission’s Free and Equal project – setting out a national law and policy reform agenda for human rights. In December 2021, we released a Position Paper on federal discrimination law reform, setting out an ambitious agenda to reform these outdated laws. The current and forthcoming reforms to implement the Respect@Work report are only the beginning, and in the Position Paper we have laid out the agenda for reforming all federal discrimination laws to ensure that they are operating effectively and in a preventive manner. In the forthcoming year, we will finalise the Free and Equal project with two final papers: a Position Paper setting out an agenda for the positive framing of human rights, centred on a national Human Rights Act; and a final report setting out the key elements of a revamped national framework on human rights to ensure that we adequately protect and advance human rights in Australia. The necessity for such reforms is pressing. There are weaknesses in our system of human rights protection that have been exposed during the COVID pandemic, and as we face the impacts of climate change and natural disasters with increasing regularity. Human rights reform remains a missing piece in ensuring the integrity of government – ensuring that the human impact of decision making by parliament and government is at the core of law, policy and practice. The outcomes of the Free and Equal project will provide guidance for law reform for years to come. In the meantime, the Commission will also look to continue to engage in discussions about the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The Commission has played a significant role in the momentum towards constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples over the past decade. Successive Social Justice Commissioners have led the call for this, with the Commission hosting the independent secretariats to various advisory panels and steering committees on the road to constitutional recognition over this time period. Most recently, the Commission hosted the secretariat that led the consultation process that culminated in the Uluru Statement. As we move towards referendum, the Commission will seek to encourage respectful and inclusive debate about The Voice, including by ensuring that debate is based in fact, history and context. 22