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Executive Summary

This report provides the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights' view on the compatibility with human rights as defined in the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 of bills introduced into the Parliament during the period 14 to 16 May 2013 and legislative instruments registered with the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments (FRLI) during the period 20 April to 17 May 2013. The committee has also considered eight responses to comments made in previous reports.

Bills introduced 14 to 16 May 2013

The committee considered 29 bills, all of which were introduced with a statement of compatibility. Fourteen of the bills considered do not require further scrutiny as they do not appear to give rise to human rights concerns.

The committee has identified 15 bills that it considers require further examination and for which it will seek further information.

Instruments registered between 20 April and 17 May 2013

The committee considered 122 legislative instruments that were registered with the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments (FRLI) between 20 April and 17 May 2013. The full list of instruments scrutinised by the committee can be found in Appendix 1 to this report.

The committee has identified six legislative instruments for which it will seek further information before forming a view about their compatibility. The committee has decided to consider one instrument as part of its examination of the Migration (Regional Processing) package of legislation.

The remaining 115 instruments considered do not appear to raise any human rights concerns and are accompanied by statements of compatibility that are adequate. The committee notes that the general standard of statements of compatibility for legislative instruments has improved significantly in recent months.

Human rights scrutiny of appropriation bills

In its Third Report of 2013 the committee set out its initial views on the human rights implications of appropriation bills. The committee noted that it does not anticipate it will generally be necessary for it to make substantive comments on such bills. Nonetheless, the committee set out its expectation that the incorporation of human rights considerations in the underlying budgetary processes, where appropriate, would provide the most practical approach to ensuring that human rights are taken into account in the development of policy and legislation.

In its consideration of appropriation bills in this report, together with the Minister's response to the committee's comments in its Third Report of 2013[1], the committee has noted the difficulties associated with providing comprehensive statements of compatibility for appropriation bills. The committee has recognised that the detail relating to specific government expenditure is primarily contained in the relevant portfolio budget statements instead of the bill itself. The committee hopes that the government will give active consideration to requiring human rights impact assessments to be expressly incorporated in portfolio budget statements to ensure that human rights are properly reflected in the underlying budgetary processes that lead to specific appropriations.

 

Mr Harry Jenkins MP
Chair

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