December 2021 Modernising the regulatory framework An additional issue is that confidentiality ‘masks the extent to which discrimination remains a problem in society’, by consigning discrimination complaints to the private sphere.66 The limited nature of the information to assist complainants was a matter identified in submissions in this Free and Equal inquiry and in prior reviews. For example, in the review of the Sex Discrimination Act by the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs in 2008, several submissions recommended publication of more detailed deidentified information concerning complaints received by the Commission and their outcomes. Professor Margaret Thornton explained to the Committee that conciliation is the main mode of dispute resolution in this jurisdiction. That means that about 98 per cent of complaints never go beyond the conciliation level and there is agreement that conciliation occur behind closed doors. ... I think having more material available to help other complainants would serve a very important educative function. What is the point of having a jurisdiction that operates almost entirely in private, behind closed doors, and then has very little money to communicate to the general public the outcome of those decisions or settlements that have been ... effected that way? 67 Professor Sara Charlesworth also submitted to the Senate Committee that there would be benefits in publishing more detailed information on inquiries and complaints: There needs to be a serious and committed attempt to collect and publish detailed deidentified data on the inquiries and complaints made to [the Commission]. This would enable both the monitoring of the efficacy of the SDA and [Commission] processes and practices. Good data collection and analysis is vital not only for reporting and accountability purposes, but also for monitoring trends in complaints and for the education and research activities undertaken by [the Commission]. Such data can form the basis of feedback to employer associations, unions, government and the broader community so that discrimination issues can be tackled in a proactive way.68 The Commission acknowledges the value in more detailed information about the subject matter of discrimination complaints, as well as complaint outcomes achieved through the conciliation process, being publicly available. It also recognises that this is a time-consuming task that the Commission is not resourced sufficiently to undertake.69 The Commission considers that dedicated resourcing should be provided to the Commission, as well as to academic partners, to provide detailed information about trends in complaints on a periodic basis. This would be a low-cost mechanism for improving the effectiveness of discrimination laws by enriching the understanding of key trends across the discrimination laws. 108 FREE AND EQUAL An Australian Conversation on Human Rights