James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

The government welcomes the Australian Human Rights Commission's inquiry report Willing to work: national inquiry into employment discrimination against older Australians and Australians with disability2016. I would like to thank the Hon. Susan Ryan AO and her team at the commission for their fantastic work on this important workplace issue.

The inquiry was commissioned by this government in April 2015 to investigate employment discrimination against people with disability, and older Australians. All Australians deserve fair and equitable treatment in the workplace. Organisations with greater diversity have greater productivity and performance and their employees are happier. They understand that investing in a diverse workforce is an investment in their future.

While I am on my feet, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that this has been a particularly productive use of the commission's time, and this stands in stark contrast to some of the commission's other activities. I am referring, in particular, to the commission's decision to host an inquiry into children in detention, not under the former government, when those numbers were on the increase and reached their peak of 2,000 children in detention, but under this government, when those numbers were decreasing and ultimately reduced to zero.

It also stands in contrast to the Human Rights Commission's utter failure in the recent Queensland University of Technology students case. The handling of that complaint by the commission has been an utter disgrace. The students in that case have been treated appallingly by the commission. The President of the Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, and her delegates have demonstrated that the Human Rights Commission is in dire need of reform as a result of the handling of that case. There are two key issues in the handling of that case. The first is the commission's extraordinary decision to sit on the complaints from the applicant for a period of 14 months before informing the students who were subject to the complaint. They only decided it was necessary to inform the students three days before a compulsory conciliation which they were ordered to attend. That meant, as a result, that a number of the students were unable to attend and were unable to arrange representation—