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

Sorry, Minister, I'm going to have to belabour this point because this is an important point. This is the peak human rights body in this country, which deals with discrimination matters on a day-to-day basis. Isn't it the case that the Australian Human Rights Commission proposed a cost model which was materially different from the cost model proposed in this bill, insofar as it was a cost model under which a whole list of enumerated matters were to be considered by the court and the court was also to consider the interests of justice and any other relevant matters, and then the court would have the discretion in relation to decisions with respect to the award of costs? The Australian Human Rights Commission, on that basis, raised some serious concerns in relation to the sections of this bill, the application of this bill, the cost model, which is an Australia-first, as it would be applied in this bill, particularly in the context of small businesses, charitable organisations and other organisations which don't have the resources that the big end of town have, that the ASX 100 have. They don't have teams of lawyers and general counsel. The Australian Human Rights Commission raised serious concerns in relation to this cost model and proposed a cost model which is different from that contained in the bill. If that is the case, why is the government proposing a cost model in relation to discrimination matters which is different from that proposed by the Australian Human Rights Commission, which deals with these matters on a day-to-day basis? Doesn't that raise any red flags? Doesn't that raise any concerns?