5. Enhancing the role of Parliament in protecting human rights Act 2011 (Cth) to provide a minimum time period for the PJCHR to consider each Bill. This would ensure that a Bill could not be enacted as law before the PJCHR had an opportunity to table its report;28 and would stipulate that legislation cannot be passed until the Committee has considered the Bill,29 outside of a ‘clearly defined emergency’.30 In such circumstances, the Commission has previously suggested that Parliament should be required to review that legislation after a fixed period of operation (for example, 2 years): ‘[t]his would encourage public debate on the impacts of that legislation upon human rights’.31 Hutchinson suggests there is scope for improvement through consideration of additional procedural or other mechanisms, including those currently available in respect of other parliamentary committees: Newly permanent Senate Standing Order 24(1) (e)–(h) enables Senators to ask the responsible minister why the Senate Scrutiny of bills Committee has not received a response if that committee has not finally reported on a bill because a ministerial response has not been received. In reflecting on the effectiveness of this mechanism in its first year in operation, the Senate Scrutiny of bills Committee noted that the proportion of ministerial responses that were received late had reduced from 44 percent to 22 percent. This approach could similarly further improve the timeliness of responses to the PJCHR. A more far-reaching solution would be to introduce an equivalent to Senate Standing Order 115(3) that would have the effect of preventing the passage of legislation prior to the PJCHR’s final report. This would also address issues of timeliness of reporting and also might allow further time for the PJCHR to consider legislation raising human rights concerns.32 With respect to a requirement for review of legislation passed without proper initial human rights scrutiny, the PJCHR could undertake such review under its existing functions. (ii) Capacity to undertake thematic inquiries Recommendation 5B: The Commission recommends that s 7 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 (Cth) be amended, along the lines of the power of the UK Human Rights Committee, to allow it to ‘make special reports on any human rights issues which it may think fit to bring to the notice of Parliament’ (but excluding consideration of individual cases). The Commission recommends that the resourcing of the PJCHR be increased to enable it to perform the wider inquiry role. The Commission considers that the undertaking of thematic inquiries and the presentation of the reports in a thematic way are good illustrations of the educative role of the PJCHR. However, the ability to undertake a wider range of thematic inquiries is constrained by the limits on the Committee’s powers, as the PJCHR cannot self-initiate general inquiries, unlike its UK counterpart. The UK Human Rights Committee has broader powers to undertake thematic inquiries on human rights issues, not tied to a specific Act or Bill, or dependent on referral by the relevant Minister. The Commission considers that the PJCHR should have a similarly broad power. Enabling the Committee to identify key areas of concern appropriate for a wider inquiry, would enhance its contributions to human rights deliberations in the parliamentary context. While adding this power would expand the ability of the PJCHR to contribute to wider human rights discussions, the Commission acknowledges that the ability for the Committee to do so is dependent on its capacity – namely, its staff resources to support such inquiries, as they require ‘significant effort’ by committee members and the secretariat,33 as demonstrated in relation to the exercise of its existing inquiry powers. Given the volume of bills and legislative instruments being introduced and made, it is not surprising that the existing inquiry power is one that has not been historically drawn upon very frequently to conduct standalone examinations. FREE & EQUAL: Revitalising Australia’s Commitment to Human Rights 105