September 2024: Commission News | President's Message
Commission – General
Dear friends,
It was good to reflect at the recent Law Institute of Victoria Legal Sector Dinner on access to justice, the role of lawyers and the law.
Too often our legal system delivers unequal access to justice – different standards of justice depending on who you are, where you live and how much is in your bank account.
Laws granting people rights are meaningless if people can’t enforce them. Quality legal help and fair, user-friendly dispute resolution are critical for people to realise their rights.
Last week’s announcement by National Cabinet of major funding to help end gender-based violence, including significant funding for frontline specialist and legal services, is welcome in this regard.
While access to legal help is an important component of access to justice, access to justice is more than access to lawyers. It’s not access to justice to receive accurate legal advice that what happened to you is unfair but perfectly legal.
At the Federal level, successive Australian Governments have now failed to deliver on promises to amend laws to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans children from discrimination in religious schools. This means in some states it’s legal for religious schools to harm children because of who they are. A legal system which facilitates this isn’t one which delivers access to justice.
Another example is the very low age of criminal responsibility in Australia. Hundreds of children aged 10-13 are locked up every year across the country. For every child locked up there are many more arrested and prosecuted.
What’s worse is the unequal impact of these laws. First Nations children, families and communities are being hit the hardest. Around 70% of 10-13 year old children locked up are First Nations.
It’s good that the Victorian Government has just passed laws to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12, but deeply disappointing that it has walked back on its commitment to raise the age to 14.
Even more disturbing is the fact that the new Northern Territory government says one of its key priorities is to reverse recent changes and lower the age of criminal responsibility there from 12 to 10. The Territory Government wants the power to arrest, charge, prosecute and lock up primary school children.
As the Commission’s new report 'Help way earlier!’ How Australia can transform child justice shows, this isn’t the way to build safer, healthier, fairer communities. This isn’t the path to access to justice.
Too often our laws are shaped by the voices and perspectives of those who hold power in our society. Too often our laws harm those who don’t.
Civil society organisations that work with communities whose human rights are at risk, and institutions like the Australian Human Rights Commission, play a critical role in improving our laws so that they deliver justice. The Commission has legislative functions to promote understanding and acceptance of human rights and to assess laws and proposed laws for human rights compliance.
I’ve been lucky in my career to see the law from many sides. Corporate law, community law, law reform, First Nations justice and human rights. I’ve seen some of the best and the worst of the law.
I love the promise of what the law can be and the positive role in can play in shaping the kind of society we all want to live in – a society with human rights at its heart.
Hugh de Kretser