Similarly, in 2022 the ACT Minister for Human Rights observed: The Human Rights Act actively influences us. Section 40B in particular creates a specific obligation for public authorities to act consistently with human rights … Human rights considerations occur in formulating policy and legislation and in scrutiny, so really, right at the outset. Essentially we prevent rights infringing laws being enacted in the first place and we are strengthening agencies’ understanding and engagement with this all the time.85 These sentiments are also reflected in reviews of the existing Human Rights Acts at the state and territory level. For example, the five year review of the ACT Human Rights Act found that its impact on policy-making and legislative processes has been more extensive and arguably more important than its impact in the courts. Its main effects have been on the legislature and executive, fostering a lively, if sometimes fragile, human rights culture within government.86 Free & Equal stakeholders confirmed that the key success of state and territory human rights instruments has been the diversion or alteration of government policy and practices as a result of the procedures in place.87 Compliance with the positive duty would result in the reduced need for people to apply to make a complaint to the Commission or apply to a court to enforce their rights. In addition to ensuring upstream consideration of rights-impacts, Human Rights Acts also enable advocates to work directly with public authorities to prevent human rights issues from escalating, by finding ways for people to resolve the issues without the need for court action. Indeed, the biggest impact of a Human Rights Act would be felt outside the courtroom, 80 often by people who cannot afford lawyers. For example, Victoria Legal Aid submitted that The cases in which hardship has been avoided, or court action is no longer necessary, are an often overlooked but essential element of the Victorian Charter’s effectiveness. For example, VLA has assisted tenants to avoid being evicted from their homes by negotiating with community housing providers and emphasising the rights and obligations which apply under the Victorian Charter. In our experience, community housing providers are open to discussing the parties’ Victorian Charter rights and obligations, and frequently agree to take further steps to address the issues which gave rise to the eviction notice rather than unfairly evicting our clients into homelessness.88 The positive duty is also made effective by the potential of court action via the Human Rights Act. In 2020, the UK law firm, Bindmans, observed that The effective enforcement machinery of the Human Rights Act has made an internal dialogue within public authorities about human rights considerations far more common than it was 20 years ago. When we are asked to advise such authorities on their decision-making on difficult issues, human rights issues often feature. However, all of this is spurred by the knowledge that human rights breaches can be litigated and so lead to judicial scrutiny with meaningful consequences.89 There are many other examples of dialogue model Human Rights Acts having a preventative impact, and leading to non-human rights compliant behaviour being addressed without the need for court action. The following case studies are illustrative.