Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, I present the committee's 12th report of the 44th Parliament entitled Examination of legislation in accordance with the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011: bills introduced 1-4 September 2014, legislative instruments received 2 August-5 September 2014. I ask leave of the House to make a short statement in connection with the report.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—I rise to speak to the tabling of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights's 12th report of the 44th Parliament. The committee considered 12 bills, all of which were introduced with their statement of compatibility. Of these, nine do not require further scrutiny as they do not appear to give rise to human rights concerns. The committee has decided to defer its consideration of one bill and has identified two bills that it considers require further examination and for which it will seek further information.

Of the bills considered, those which are scheduled for debate during the sitting week commencing 22 September include the Customs Amendment (Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement Implementation) Bill 2014, the Customs Tariff Amendment (Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement Implementation) Bill 2014, the Infrastructure Australia Amendment (Cost Benefit Analysis and Other Measures) Bill 2014, the Migration Amendment (Protection and Other Measures) Bill 2014 and the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2014 Measures No. 5) Bill 2014. The report outlines the committee's assessment of the compatibility of these bills with human rights. I encourage my fellow members to look to the committee's report to inform their deliberations on the merits of this proposed legislation.

I draw members' attention to one bill in this report that is of particular interest and relevance to the committee's task of assessing legislation for compatibility with human rights. The Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 2) Bill 2014 seeks to amend various acts relating to social security, family assistance, veterans' entitlements and farm household support to make a number of changes to certain Australian government payments. These include measures to: pause indexation for three years of the income free areas and assets value limits for student payments; pause indexation for three years of the income and assets test free areas for all pensioners other than parenting payment single recipients and the deeming thresholds for all income support payments; provide that all pensions are indexed to the consumer price index only, by removing both benchmarking to male total average weekly earnings and indexation to the pensioner and beneficiary living cost index.

The committee previously sought the advice of the minister as to whether the measures are compatible with these rights as the statement of compatibility did not adequately identify and assess how potential limitations on the rights to social security, the right to an adequate standard of living and the rights to equality and nondiscrimination would be reasonable, necessary and proportionate in each case.

The further information provided by the minister in this case is an excellent model for the kind of detailed information and analysis required to assist the committee in its assessment. This further information has allowed the committee to conclude that the measures are largely compatible with the right to social security and the right to an adequate standard of living with identified limitations of rights being generally assessed as reasonable, necessary and proportionate in pursuit of a legitimate objective.

Significantly, of the 12 matters raised by the committee in relation to measures in the bill, the committee has concluded that 10 are compatible with human rights. I would urge ministers and officers of the departments and agencies with responsibility for the preparation of statements of compatibility to look at the committee's examination of this bill as a guide to understanding the processes and analytical framework within which the committee works.

I commend the committee's 12 report of the 44th Parliament to the chamber.