MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator THORPE (Victoria—Independent VIC Whip) (16:30): I move: That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency: The need for the Government to progress a Human Rights Act to ensure basic human rights are being upheld in this country, in adherence to our international human rights obligations. So-called Australia is signed up to all kinds of international human rights treaties, conventions and proclamations.
It must have made the PMs and ministers of their time feel good and noble about themselves. But when it comes to protecting the human rights enshrined in all these conventions, this country is not doing quite as well. In the latest Universal Periodic Review, where countries are assessed on their human rights record, this country received 332 recommendations.
Less than two months ago, the Labor government announced that they would accept just 128. They decided that they don't need to worry about recommendations from over 20 countries to raise the age of criminal responsibility and stop locking up children as young as 10. They decided not to worry about reducing the racist overrepresentation of First Peoples in prisons, which has led to higher and higher numbers of Aboriginal deaths in custody.
They decided to reject all recommendations on improving LGBTIQA+ rights. They decided not to worry about asylum seekers either. The government has signed up to all those human rights conventions on paper only.
It means nothing. It is shameful that the colonial Constitution of this country does not protect people's human rights. In its absence, to actually ensure compliance with our international obligations, human rights instruments need to be enshrined in domestic law—something that all federal governments have shied away from.
The Albanese Labor government is too scared to say it doesn't want a human rights act; that wouldn't look too good. Meanwhile, it actively violates human rights every day. We see women shackled to their beds while they give birth.
We see children as young as 10 strip searched. There have been 83 deaths in custody this year alone, and the number is only rising. We see the most horrific police brutality again and again.
We see children ripped from their family's arms into abuse and neglect in state care. Governments across the country, Labor and coalition governments alike, are causing more and more harm, emboldened by one another in the race to the bottom with more punitive youth justice laws, the removal of the Aboriginal child placement principle in the Northern Territory and a complete lack of responsibility on public housing, among other things.
A national human rights act was first attempted in 1985. It was this chamber that ultimately abandoned it. Yet it has been recommended time and time again by report after report, inquiry after inquiry, not least of which were the National Human Rights Consultation in 2009 and the inquiry into Australia's human rights framework in 2024.
In the past 12 months, the National Children's Commissioner's report on youth justice Help way earlier! recommended that the government introduce a federal human rights act. I've been travelling across the country to attend hearings for this current inquiry into racism, hate and violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Witness after witness has talked about the systemic racism they have experienced, with the most chilling stories you could imagine—stories of assaults, harassment and ultimately death, and stories of state institutions turning their back on First Peoples and refusing to provide protection of our rights and most basic needs.
This is why, today, I call on the government and everyone here in this chamber to make clear where they stand. If you care at all about protecting people's fundamental human rights in this country, you will support this motion and make clear it is time for a federal human rights act.