A reform agenda for federal discrimination laws December 2021 2 Reforming federal discrimination laws: the foundation stone of human rights protection in Australia The Commission has chosen to focus on federal discrimination law as the first component of our human rights reform agenda as it is the most developed and longstanding component of human rights protection in Australia. These laws promote human rights being available on an equal basis, without discrimination. Federal discrimination law protections have been the predominant implementation tool for protecting human rights in Australia in giving effect to our international obligations. This has meant that there are significant gaps in protection that exist due to the lack of more positive and comprehensive rights protection. The need for other, complementary protections of human rights is addressed in the second Position Paper that will be released by the Commission. Here we focus on the appropriate role of discrimination law, but recognising that discrimination law is not the only means ‘by which the disadvantages of the disabled or other minority groups are to be alleviated’.5 Other tools are needed. The proposals for reform here aim to realise the purpose of discrimination law, while recognising the need for parallel measures that alleviate disadvantage and protect other important human rights. The Commission notes that Australia was a world leader on discrimination protections when the Racial Discrimination Act (Cth) was introduced in 1975 – ‘an important trailblazing law’.6 The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) and Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) were also considered international best practice at the time they were introduced.7 However, what was best practice in the second half of the 20th century is not so in the 21st century. Australia has fallen behind other comparable jurisdictions in the protection against discrimination and the transformation that has occurred in those jurisdictions in advancing equality. For this reason, the Commission agrees with the observation of Professors Neil Rees and Simon Rice, and Associate Professor Dominique Allen, that Australia’s discrimination laws ‘are now in urgent need of renewal’.8 Reforms that have occurred to federal discrimination law over the past 40 years have tended to occur on an issue-specific basis, by adding in new protected attributes – either within existing legislation or by creating a further Act. Reforms have tended to be discrete and not focused on the operational effectiveness of the overall legislative scheme. So, while discrimination laws remain the foundation stone of human rights protection in Australia, questions about their overall effectiveness assume great significance. FREE AND EQUAL An Australian Conversation on Human Rights 19