Rosalind Croucher, president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, addressed the National Press Club of Australia this week calling for the creation of a national human rights act. Croucher said that she had become increasingly convinced of the need for the act in recent years, arguing it would lead parliament to "consider more directly how their lawmaking affects people's freedoms and rights".
"What a human rights act does is try to basically say, 'Here is the global standard which we've agreed to and which we've put into effect.'" While human rights acts have been passed in Victoria, the ACT and Queensland, the Australian Human Rights Commission says that having a single national act would "substantially improve access to justice and accountability for government decision-making".