discrimination Archives - Queensland Advocacy Incorporated

2015 Summary of Submission – Senate Committee Inquiry – Violence, Abuse, Neglect PWD

QAI has campaigned for the closure of institutional and congregate care arrangements since
our inception in 1988, and have worked collaboratively with people with disability, family
members, other advocacy groups and allies to successfully close down a number of such
places. We need to support people to live in the community in accommodation arrangements
they choose.
Abusive practices can become embedded if they are not immediately addressed. When
subtle forms of abuse are viewed as harmless, more overt and serious issues are more likely
to occur and be ignored. People who are systematically abused can normalise this behaviour
and unwittingly perpetuate the abuse upon others. Other people who normalise abusive
behaviour can become perpetual victims.

Read the summary Summary Senate Inquiry – abuse

Senate Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry – Violence, Abuse, Neglect against People with Disability in Institutional and Residential Settings

Violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional
and residential settings, including the gender and age related
dimensions, and the particular situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people with disability, and culturally and linguistically diverse
people with disability

Read the submission here15.05.14 Submission to Senate Community Affairs Committee – abuse (1)

Priorities for Federal Discrimination Law Reform – QAI Submission

QAI made a submission in November 2019 to the Australian Human Rights Commission on the Priorities for Federal Discrimination Law Reform. Upwards reaching arms labelled with key tenants of human rights. Prosperity, equality, freedom, justice and hope.

Summary of QAI’s Recommendations:

QAI supports the summary of proposed priorities for federal discrimination law reform.
QAI considers that the Federal Government should undertake structural and substantive reform of the current discrimination laws, consolidating the separate discrimination statutes into a single Act that is comprehensive, consistent and extends reasonable adjustments to impose a specific positive duty across all protected attributes in all protected areas of life.
QAI submits that existing protected attributes should be extended to include carer’s responsibility, volunteers and interns, accommodation status and subjection to domestic and family violence.
The legislation should reflect and incorporate the obligations Australia has assumed at international law.
Gaps in coverage for carer’s responsibility, volunteers and interns, accommodation status and domestic and family violence must be addressed.
All permanent exemptions should be reviewed not only in light of the overall purpose of discrimination law to promote equality and fair treatment, but also having regard to the purpose and intent of the CRPD.
Current compliance mechanisms administered by the Commission are necessary and helpful and QAI supports their continuation. We note the significant problems with the temporary exemptions available under the DDA and consider that the granting of exemptions can undermine the strength and power of discrimination law.
QAI strongly supports the Commission’s position that there is a need for greater awareness-raising activities and possibly industry support to promote compliance, as well as robust review processes to measure the effectiveness of the Disability Standards. QAI considers that the introduction of voluntary audits, a general inquiry function and positive duties would be of significant value.
QAI strongly supports the introduction of a positive duty for public entities to proactively take measures to eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment and advance equality.
QAI agrees that complaints processes must be available and accessible for all people.
QAI notes that the nature of confidential conciliations reduces the likelihood that matters will resolve and places the complainant in the position of having to proceed to a less accessible and available forum, which is a significant limitation of discrimination law.
QAI proposes extending the timeframe to 12 months, with extensions available, to cover complex disputes and circumstances where vulnerable complainants have been unable or unwilling to take action earlier.
QAI strongly supports the provision of greater clarity about the ability for representative actions to be brought and agrees this would enable a greater focus on systemic discrimination issues and reduce the pressure on individual complainants.
QAI submits that there should be no costs orders made against a complainant, except in very exceptional cases where there has been a clear demonstration of a deliberate and vexatious misuse of process. Strong safeguards should be in place regarding legal representation.
QAI considers that there must be measures introduced to address the particular vulnerability of persons experiencing intersectional discrimination that includes harassment and vilification. Protections for vilification under federal discrimination law should be at least equivalent to the protections offered by state law and should attract both civil and criminal penalties in appropriate cases.
Discrimination should not remain the sole remedy under Commonwealth law for a vulnerable person who has experienced an unlawful breach of their human rights. It is time to enact a federal Human Rights Act or Charter, which translates the international human rights Australia has agreed to respect and protect into binding domestic law.

You can read the full submission here.

MEDIA RELEASE – Queensland Advocacy welcomes landmark Human Rights legislation tabled in Queensland Parliament today

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31 October 2018

For immediate release

Queensland Advocacy welcomes landmark Human Rights legislation tabled in Queensland Parliament today

It is with much excitement that Queensland Advocacy Incorporated (QAI) thanks and congratulates the Queensland Government for introducing a Human Rights Bill for Queensland.

The announcement by the Queensland Attorney-General, the Hon. Yvette D’Ath, that the Human Rights Bill was being tabled in Parliament was enthusiastically welcomed by a broad cross-section of the community at the Community Legal Centres Queensland Leadership Forum in Brisbane on Monday.

QAI strongly supports this highly important legislative reform. “This is the reform that all of us who work with, support and advocate for the most vulnerable people in our community have been waiting and hoping for,” QAI’s Director Michelle O’Flynn said today. “We applaud the Queensland Government for developing a strong and workable Act that will help to create a culture of human rights protection in this state.”

Once enacted, the Human Rights Act will offer basic protection of fundamental civil and political rights for all Queenslanders. In an innovative step for Australia, the Bill also protects the cultural rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the economic, social and cultural rights to education and healthcare.

QAI senior lawyer and systems advocate Emma Phillips, who has been working on the community-driven campaign for a Human Rights Act for the past three years and is Chair of the Human Rights Act Sub-Committee of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, welcomed the historic reforms. “The introduction of this Bill represents a pivotal milestone in Queensland history,” Dr Phillips said.

“This Bill contains a strong framework that protects the fundamental human rights of Queenslanders. We are particularly pleased to see the inclusion of a complaints mechanism, which enables people to make a complaint to the Queensland Human Rights Commission and have the opportunity for this complaint to be heard and conciliated in an accessible forum,” Dr Phillips said. “This is innovative and important law reform – Queensland is leading the way in offering the strongest model of human rights protection in Australia.”

QAI is hopeful that the Government will consider the inclusion of a broad range of remedies for breaches of the Act to ensure that the human rights are enforceable and meaningful. QAI also emphasises the importance of not limiting the Act in any way in its application, to ensure it offers full protection to all Queenslanders, particularly the most vulnerable.

“While the passage of this Human Rights Bill may not make a difference to the lives of all Queenslanders, it will make a fundamental difference to the lives of the most marginalised and disempowered, including people with disability and mental illness who seek advice and assistance from our organisation,” Dr Phillips said. “It will introduce another dimension into decision-making about matters affecting the rights and lives of Queenslanders, requiring those making decisions by or on behalf of public entities to have regard to the impact of those decisions on the human rights of the person concerned. This will be an important safeguard for all Queenslanders, but will be particularly significant for those on the margins.”

“This is a really significant moment in Queensland history,” Ms O’Flynn said. “We wish to congratulate all of those who have worked so hard to make this happen.”

For more information, please visit the campaign website: humanrights4qld.com.au.

Media contact:

Emma Phillips: (07) 3844 4200

Information provided in this release is not intended to constitute legal advice and should not be construed as such. You should obtain your own legal advice before applying any information provided in this release to specific issues or situations.

Let’s Nix 216

Section 216 of our Queensland Criminal Code makes it unlawful (i.e. a criminal offence) for any person to have intimate relations (i.e. sex!) with another person who has ‘impairment of the mind’, which is defined broadly in the Criminal Code and includes any person with an intellectual, psychiatric, cognitive or neurological impairment that results in a substantial reduction in that person’s capacity for communication, social interaction or learning, and that person needing support.

That’s long-winded, so, for example, someone such as Stephen Hawking likely would have fit the definition, as would many people who have cerebral palsy that makes communication difficult without support, or intellectual disability.

Notice that there’s nothing there about decision-making capacity. Parliament framed section 216 on the assumption that if you fit the definition you are not capable of making a decision about whether you can/want to have sex. Consent, or not, does not matter.

The provision is discriminatory. It’s less favourable to many people with disability, and indeed many people who fit the definition of ‘person who has impairment of the mind’ are in relationships, including marriages, to other people who fit this definition.

Let’s nix 216!