Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Hansard source

That answer concerns me because it doesn't engage properly with the question that I asked. I'll tease it out for you more. Again, for the benefit of those assisting the minister, it's this phrase that we're asking questions about, which has been raised by organisations that made submissions to the inquiry. With respect to costs providing a regime under which a successful respondent can only claim their costs in extraordinarily limited circumstances, even if they've been successful, this regime applies to proceedings including an appeal in a court that relate to an application made by a person.

Quite typically, in these sorts of cases, there are multiple claims that are made. So, if someone brings a discrimination claim, they'll also potentially bring a breach-of-contract claim and they'll also bring a negligence claim. Their legal advisers will typically give them advice to assert all their rights as they can under different areas of the law. As I'm reading this section, it would mean that this new cost regime—and I'll repeat my view, which I note's contested—would be unique in Australian law, certainly with respect to discrimination law. This new cost regime wouldn't just be limited to discrimination claims; it would go to all the other claims that are brought at the same time, which includes a contractual claim, a claim for negligence—it could apply to anything else. So my question is: in that situation, where an applicant brings a claim that has a discrimination element and also, in the same statement of claim, alleges breach of contract and negligence, will this new cost regime apply to all of those claims or just to the discrimination element?