David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, I present the Human rights scrutiny report: report 1 of 2017.

Ordered that the report be printed.

I seek leave to have the tabling statement incorporated into Hansard.

Leave granted.

The statement read as follows—

Parliamentary Joint Committee On Human Rights

Tabling Statement

THURSDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2017

I rise to speak to the tabling of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights' Report 1 of 2017.

The committee's report examines the compatibility of recent bills and legislative instruments with Australia's human rights obligations. Twenty-eight new bills are assessed as not raising human rights concerns, the committee is seeking further information in relation to six bills and legislative instruments, and the committee has also concluded its consideration of a number of matters.

Before discussing the report further, I would like to take this opportunity to speak a little about the progress of the committee's inquiry into Freedom of Speech in Australia.

The committee received approximately 11,500 items, including approximately 9,500 form letters; 375 items accepted by the committee as submissions and published to date; and approximately 1,400 items accepted by the committee as correspondence.

The committee has completed seven public hearings to date, in Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. It is scheduled to conduct a further hearing in Canberra tomorrow, and its final hearing in Darwin next Monday, 20 February 2017. The committee is due to report on 28 February 2017.

I will now turn to a brief discussion of the three matters that the committee finalised in this report:

Sex Discrimination Act 1984

I encourage my fellow Senators and others to examine the committee's report to better inform their understanding of the committee's work.

With these comments, I commend the committee's Report 1 of 2017 to the Senate.