Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Age Discrimination Act 2004 implemented the government’s 2001 election commitment to develop legislation to prohibit age discrimination which would eliminate, as far as possible, age discrimination in key areas of public life.

The act is working well.

The government believes that the act is playing an important role in addressing negative stereotypes, particularly assumptions about older workers.

All antidiscrimination laws must strike the right balance between prohibiting unfair discrimination and allowing legitimate differential treatment.

When the Age Discrimination Act commenced, it included various exemptions for Commonwealth laws.

One of these was a general exemption for all Commonwealth acts and regulations for a period of two years.

The purpose of this general exemption was to present an opportunity for further legitimate exemptions to be identified.

The general exemption will expire on 23 June 2006.

The general exemption for all Commonwealth laws will be replaced by a much more limited number of exemptions that will continue to protect justifiable age related provisions in acts and regulations.

The bill is the result of a comprehensive assessment of Commonwealth laws and programs that examined their consistency with the Age Discrimination Act.

As well as acts and regulations, this assessment identified other instruments, schemes and programs that use age based criteria for sound policy reasons.

It also identified areas where the scope of the existing exemptions is uncertain or needs to be adjusted.

The bill addresses these additional issues.

The scope of the new exemptions has been limited by exempting only part of a law if that is sufficient to protect the age related provisions.

A new schedule will list acts, regulations and other instruments and specify which provisions are exempted.

The government will continue to review the appropriate scope of exemptions so that the act applies to as wide a field of public activity as possible.

Many of the amendments will provide certainty for measures that are targeted for the benefit of particular age groups.

For example, the bill will ensure that senior citizens can choose to apply for a less expensive passport, and can receive a higher rebate for private health insurance.

It will also help maintain the classification scheme which protects our children from objectionable content in films, computer games and literature.

Other provisions in the bill address Australia’s international obligations in aviation and shipping.

One of the most important objectives of the Age Discrimination Act is to reduce discrimination in employment and remove barriers to workforce participation.

The bill inserts an exemption for some Commonwealth employment programs, to ensure that programs can continue to be designed in the most appropriate way to meet the needs and circumstances of different groups, including different age groups.

To be exempted, an employment program will need to meet certain conditions.

Providing these conditions are met, an employment program will be able to be designed so that effort is targeted to where it will do the most good.

This bill is a carefully considered package of measures that will further the goal of eliminating age discrimination while allowing genuine age related needs to be met. I table an explanatory memorandum.

Debate (on motion by Ms Roxon) adjourned.