Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, I present the committee's report entitled Human rights scrutiny report: report 1 of 2023.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—I'm pleased to table the first scrutiny report of 2023 of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. In this report, the committee has considered 28 new bills and 329 new legislative instruments. The committee has commented on four of these bills and three legislative instruments. In particular, the committee is seeking further information in relation to the Quality of Care (Restrictive Practices) Principles 2022 instrument. This instrument sets out who can consent to the use of restrictive practices on behalf of people in aged care when they are deemed to lack capacity to consent. The committee has a longstanding concern regarding the use of restrictive practices on persons in aged care and considers that this measure may promote and limit a number of human rights, including limiting the rights of persons with a disability to equal recognition before the law. The committee is seeking further information from the minister for aged care to assess the compatibility of this measure with these rights.

The committee is also seeking further information in relation to the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022. In particular, it is seeking information in relation to the proposed prohibition of foreign persons engaging in referendum campaigning. I note that the committee acknowledged the important objective of the bill in seeking to prevent foreign state players maliciously interfering with our referendum processes. The concern relates to foreign persons living in Australia whose rights would be affected by this measure. This committee is also seeking advice as to whether the proposed amendments to remove the requirement relating to the distribution of official pamphlets has any human rights implications, and reserves the right to report further. I do note the further reports since the tabling of our report.

Also in this report, the committee concluded its consideration of three bills and one legislative instrument previously considered, including its assessment of the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Information Disclosure, National Interest and Other Measures) Bill 2022. This bill seeks to permit the disclosure of personal information to facilitate assistance provided by the telecommunications industry, the law enforcement agency and emergency services organisations. The committee considers, that based on the additional information provided by the Minister for Communications, the proposed limit on the right of privacy in relation to a number of measures would likely be proportionate. The committee thanks the minister for her comprehensive response to its questions and welcomes her advice that the explanatory materials accompanying this bill will be updated to reflect this useful additional information. The committee has made a small recommendation to amend the bill to better reflect the minister's advice as to what personal information can be shared under the legislation.

Finally, the committee has concluded its assessment of the Data Availability and Transparency (Consequential Amendments) Transitional Rules 2022. These rules authorise the provision of controlled access to Australian government data by prescribing six entities as transitional Australian data service providers. In assessing this legislative instrument, the committee was greatly assisted by the additional information provided by the Minister for Finance and, in particular, the informative briefing by the National Data Commissioner and departmental officials to the committee secretariat, and we thank them for taking the time to provide this useful briefing.

The committee is pleased to note that many of the 251 amendments made to the legislation giving effect to this data scheme and safeguards, included in a recently introduced code, were in response to the committee's previous recommendations. The committee considers these amendments assist with the proportionality of the scheme and legislative instrument, although noting that much will depend on how the scheme is applied in practice. This is a useful example of how the committee's human rights analysis of legislation can ensure better protection of fundamental rights in legislation.

I would like to thank the deputy chair and all of the committee members for their participation. We have had fantastic discussions in the committee, full of robust exchanges, but always constructive and I thank all the members, and I especially think our hardworking secretariat. They are extraordinary. They have done a huge amount of work in preparing extremely high-level advice to the committee and have assisted us in our duties as the Human Rights Joint Committee. Onn that note, I commend the committee's scrutiny report 1 of 2023 to the House.