In addition, the Commission was assisted by a number of expert readers, in providing final review reading of both Position Papers.23 The Commission acknowledges the considerable contribution made by them and expresses gratitude to them for voluntarily providing their time and expertise. Since March 2023, the Commission has also convened briefings with organisations nationally to provide a detailed overview of the Commission’s model Human Rights Act, federal discrimination law reform proposals and recommended National Human Rights Framework. The reform proposals in this paper are outlined in chapter 4 below. They have been updated to reflect developments since the paper’s release in December 2021, such as reforms to the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 in response to the Commission’s Respect@Work report (2020). The purpose of these engagements was to inform the community sector of the Commission’s proposals so that they were able to engage on them during the inquiry into Australia’s Human Rights Framework by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. The Commission acknowledges the contribution of all those who participated throughout the Free & Equal Inquiry process. It is invaluable to the work of the Commission and greatly enriches the reform process. We record our deep appreciation to all stakeholders for this contribution. (c) Outputs The outcomes of the Free & Equal project have been released in 7 documents: • two Position Papers on key reform priorities – Free & Equal: a reform agenda for federal discrimination laws (2021) and Free & Equal: A Human Rights Act for Australia (2023) • a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council for Australia’s 3rd Universal Periodic Review (2021) • two submissions to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (2023) • this Final Report • the Commission has also prepared a Summary Report to provide a short accessible version of this Final Report. 28 The first Position Paper was released in December 2021: Free & Equal: A reform agenda for federal discrimination laws.24 It set out a reform agenda to modernise the set of 4 federal discrimination laws, including by remedying deficiencies in the current laws, by placing a greater focus on prevention of discrimination and by introducing co-regulatory approaches that enable governments and businesses in particular to be better equipped to prevent and/or deal with discrimination. The second Position Paper was released in March 2023: Free & Equal: A Human Rights Act for Australia.25 It sets out the Commission’s case for the introduction of a federal Human Rights Act in Australia, and provides an outline of the Commission’s proposed model and related improvements to the human rights parliamentary scrutiny regime. This is discussed in chapters 3 and 5 of the report. In 2021, the Commission contributed to Australia’s 3rd Universal Periodic Review, the peer-review dialogue undertaken by the United National Human Rights Council and all 192 Member States of the UN.26 We lodged an independent report (in our capacity as Australia’s national human rights institution). The Commission then contributed 2 submissions to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights for its inquiry into Australia’s Human Rights Framework.27 These submissions enabled the Commission to ‘road-test’ the reform proposals included in this Final Report. This Final Report brings together the various streams of all the Commission’s work in advocating a reimagined Human Rights Framework for Australia and a roadmap of law reform for the next decade. FREE & EQUAL: Revitalising Australia’s Commitment to Human Rights