Footnotes

[1]          Absolute rights are: the right not to be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; the right not to be subjected to slavery; the right not to be imprisoned for inability to fulfil a contract; the right not to be subject to retrospective criminal laws; the right to recognition as a person before the law.

Chapter 1 - New and continuing matters

[1]          See Parliament of Australia website, 'Journals of the Senate', http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Chamber_documents/Senate_chamber_documents/Journals_of_the_Senate.

[2]          See Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Thirtieth Report of the 44^th Parliament (10 November 2015) 2.

[3]          See Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Twenty-fourth Report of the 44^th Parliament (23 June 2015) 2.

[4]          See the entry 'Instruments made under the Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 and the Charter of the United Nations Act 1945' in Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Twenty‑eighth Report of the 44^th Parliament (17 September 2015) 15-38. The instrument was deferred by the committee in Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Thirtieth Report of the 44^th Parliament (10 November 2015) 2.

[5]          See Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Twenty-first Report of the 44^th Parliament (24 March 2015); and Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Twenty‑third Report of the 44^th Parliament (18 June 2015).

[6]           Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Nineteenth Report of the 44^th Parliament (3 March 2015) 29-38.

[7]           Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Twenty‑second Report of the 44^th Parliament (13 May 2015) 174-182.

[8]           Section 380 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 (the Telecommunications Act).

[9]           Section 382 of the Telecommunications Act.

[10]           The prohibited grounds are race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Under 'other status' the following have been held to qualify as prohibited grounds: age, nationality, marital status, disability, place of residence within a country and sexual orientation.

[11]           UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment 18, Non-discrimination (1989).

[12]           Althammer v Austria HRC 998/01 [10.2].

[13]           Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, General Comment No. 2: Article 9: Accessibility (2014) para 28.

[14]           Explanatory Memorandum (EM), Statement of Compatibility (SoC) 88.

[15]         Article 2(1) and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); article 2(2) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

[16]         Article 9 of the ICESCR.

[17]         Article 11 of the ICESCR.

[18]         Article 17 of the ICCPR.

[19]         EM, SoC 95.

[20]         See Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Eleventh Report of 2013: Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012 and related legislation (June 2013).

[21]         Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Eleventh Report of 2013: Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012 and related legislation (June 2013) 38-39.

[22]         Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Eleventh Report of 2013: Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012 and related legislation (June 2013) 34.

[23]         Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Eleventh Report of 2013: Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012 and related legislation (June 2013) 75.

[24]         Though note that the committee has previously concluded that it does not consider that these measures can properly be characterised as 'special measures' for the purposes of international human rights law. See Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Eleventh Report of 2013: Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012 and related legislation (June 2013) 21-28.

[25]         Note the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 16, para 36: 'States parties are encouraged to adopt temporary special measures to accelerate the achievement of equality between men and women in the enjoyment of the rights under the Covenant...The results of such measures should be monitored with a view to being discontinued when the objectives for which they are undertaken have been achieved'. Note also the comments of Bell J in Maloney v R [2013] HCA 28 at [252].

[26]           United Nations Security Council, Resolution 2199 (2015), paragraph 17, 7379th meeting.

[27]           See article 2(2) and article 41 of the Charter of the United Nations 1945.

[28]           See section 103 of the UN Charter which provides: 'In the event of a conflict between the obligations of the Members of the United Nations under the present Charter and their obligations under any other international agreement, their obligations under the present Charter shall prevail'.

[29]           See the combined effect of the Charter of the United Nations (UN Sanction Enforcement Law) Amendment Declaration 2015 (No. 2) [F2015L01673], which designates regulation 5 of the Charter of the United Nations (Sanctions—Syria) Regulation 2015 as a UN Sanction Enforcement Law under section 2B of the Charter of the United Nations Act 1945, read with section 27 of that Act which makes contravention of a UN sanction enforcement law a criminal offence.

[30]           See Charter of the United Nations (UN Sanction Enforcement Law) Amendment Declaration 2015 (No. 2), specifying regulation 10 of the Charter of the United Nations (Sanctions—Iraq) Regulation 2008 and regulation 6 of the Charter of the United Nations (Sanctions—Syria) Regulation 2015 as UN sanction enforcement laws under section 2B of the Charter of the United Nations Act 1945, read with section 27 of that Act which makes contravention of a UN sanction enforcement law a criminal offence.

[31]           United Nations Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 35: Article 9 (Liberty and Security of persons), (16 December 2014) paragraph 12.

[32]           United Nations Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 35: Article 9 (Liberty and Security of persons), (16 December 2014) paragraph 22.

[33]           Attorney-General's Department, A Guide to Framing Commonwealth Offences, Infringement Notices and Enforcement Powers (September 2011 edition) 23.

Chapter 2 - Concluded matters

[1]          Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Twenty-seventh Report of the 44^th Parliament (17 September 2015) 20-30.

[2]          See proposed new subsection 124PQ(2) of the bill.

[3]          Andrew Forrest, Creating Parity – the Forrest Review (2014).

[4]          Andrew Forrest, Creating Parity – the Forrest Review (2014) 106.

[5]          Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Eleventh Report of 2013: Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012 and related legislation (26 June 2013).

[6]          The committee is currently undertaking a review of the income management measures as part of its review into Stronger Futures.

[7]          Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Human rights scrutiny report, Twenty‑seventh report of the 44th Parliament, 8 September 2015, p. 22.

[8]          Social Services Legislation Amendment (Debit Card Trial) Bill 2015, Explanatory Memorandum, Statement of Compatibility, p. 4.

[9]          Australian Medical Association, 2014, National Alcohol Summit, available from https://ama.com.au/alcoholsummit.

[10]        Australian Government, 2014, Problem Gambling, available from: http://www.problemgambling.gov.au/.

[11]        Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Human rights scrutiny report, Twenty‑seventh report of the 44th Parliament, 8 September 2015, p. 23.

[12]        Deloitte (2014b) Place Based Income Management- Process and short term outcomes evaluation, August 2014, Deloitte Access Economics, Barton, ACT; Department of Social Services (DSS) (2014a) A Review of Child Protection Income Management in Western Australia, DSS, Canberra; and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2010) Evaluation of income management in the Northern Territory, Occasional Paper No 34. Department of Families. Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Canberra.

[13]        See Appendix 1, Letter from the Hon Alan Tudge MP, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, to the Hon Philip Ruddock MP (dated 19 October 2015) 1-3.

[14]        Andrew Forrest, Creating Parity – the Forrest Review (2014) 1.

[15]        Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Human rights scrutiny report, Twenty‑seventh report of the 44th Parliament, 8 September 2015, p. 26.

[16]        Social Services Legislation Amendment (Debit Card Trial) Bill 2015, Explanatory Memorandum, Statement of Compatibility, p. 4.

[17]        Social Services Legislation Amendment (Debit Card Trial) Bill 2015, Explanatory Memorandum, Statement of Compatibility, p. 3.

[18]        Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Human rights scrutiny report, Twenty‑seventh report of the 44th Parliament, 8 September 2015, p. 27.

[19]        Department of Human Services administrative data (DSS Blue Book dataset) as at 27/03/15.

[20]        Department of Human Services administrative data (DSS Blue Book dataset) as at 27/03/15.

[21]        Submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs inquiry to the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Debit Card Trial) Bill 2015, District Council of Ceduna, Annexure 1, p. 3.

[22]        Submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs inquiry to the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Debit Card Trial) Bill 2015, District Council of Ceduna, Annexure 3, p. 2.

[23]        See Appendix 1, Letter from the Hon Alan Tudge MP, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, to the Hon Philip Ruddock MP (dated 19 October 2015) 3-5.

[24]        For example, based on statistics published by the Department of Social Services (DSS), in 2013 821 738 persons were receiving the Disability Support Pension (DSP). Once persons receiving the Aged Pension are removed from the total number of recipients, persons receiving DSP made up 29.5 per cent of the total number of recipients. See DSS, Statistical Paper No. 12, Income support customers: a statistical overview 2013 (2014) 2.

[25]        See Appendix 1, Letter from the Hon Alan Tudge MP, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, to the Hon Philip Ruddock MP (dated 19 October 2015) 5-6.

[26]          Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Twenty-sixth Report of the 44^th Parliament (18 August 2015) 7-11.

[27]          Explanatory Statement, Statement of Compatibility 3.

[28]          Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Sixth Report of 2013 (15 May 2013) 189‑191.

[29]          Human Rights Committee, General Comment 32, Right to equality before courts and tribunals and to a fair trial, UN Doc CCPR/C/GC/32, 23 August 2007.

[30]          Engel and Others v the Netherlands, Application No. 5100/71, 5101/71 , 5102171 , 5354/72, 5370/72, 8 June 1976.

[31]          p.74. Organised Crime in Australia 2011. Australian Crime Commission.

[32]          p.75. Organised Crime in Australia 2011. Australian Crime Commission.

[33]          p.73. Organised Crime in Australia 2011. Australian Crime Commission.

[34]          See Appendix 1, Letter from the Hon Michael Keenan MP, Minister for Justice, to the Hon Philip Ruddock MP (dated 13 October 2015) 1-4.

[35]        Section 5(2) POC Act.

[36]        Australian Government, Australian Institute of Criminology, Transnational crime brief no. 1 (January 2008) 1.

[37]        See Goldsmith v Customs and Excise Commissioners [2001] 1 WLR 16733; R v Dover Magistrates Court [2003] Q.B. 1238.

[38]        R v Green [1983] 9 C.R.R. 78; Johnston v British Columbia [1987] 27 C.R.R. 206.

[39]        Australian Federal Police, Annual Report 2012-13, 101.

[40]        Australian Crime Commission, Organised Crime in Australia 2015 (2015) 49.