A reform agenda for federal discrimination laws December 2021 2017 amendments to the AHRC Act The 2017 amendments were designed to improve procedural fairness, and to enable the dismissal of unmeritorious complaints at an earlier stage.63 Key changes included: • The introduction of a higher threshold for making a valid complaint of unlawful discrimination.64 • New obligations for the Commission to notify respondents and the subjects of adverse allegations.65 • The introduction of a requirement that the President make a preliminary assessment to consider whether a complaint should be terminated. • Expansion of the termination grounds, enabling the President to terminate where satisfied that an inquiry, or a continuation of an inquiry, is not warranted;66 and the discretionary termination of a complaint where it is lodged more than six months after the alleged conduct, shortened from the previous timeframe of 12 months.67 • Requiring a complainant to seek leave to proceed with a claim in court when a complaint is terminated on certain grounds, rather than having an automatic right to do so under the previous law.68 The amendments also implemented a number of recommendations advanced by the Commission itself to improve its operations and reduce its administrative burdens. These changes enabled discretionary rather than mandatory reporting to the Minister, improved governance arrangements, and clarified conciliation processes and confidentiality rules to provide greater certainty to parties.69 FREE AND EQUAL An Australian Conversation on Human Rights 37