Queensland’s state government has rejected recommendations that would have required victims of crime to be treated with respect, and protected rights to adequate housing and the right to be free from gender-based violence.
The recommendations were contained in a review of the state’s Human Rights Act, led by eminent human rights lawyer Susan Harris-Rimmer.
The full report, which makes 70 recommendations, was handed to the then Labor government in September 2024, but only published today.
Government should add new rights to the act including the “right to adequate housing”, “right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment” and “right to live free from gender-based violence”, it said.
It also recommended the government ban exemptions to the rights of children allowing them to be held in adult-only police watch houses, or in cells with other inmates.
A new legal right should also be created requiring victims of violent crime to be treated in a “respectful and trauma-informed manner, which includes providing information in a timely manner that reduces the stress and trauma on victims”, the review found.
In a letter tabled today in parliament with the report, the attorney general, Deb Frecklington, said the government “has agreed not to implement the report’s recommendations”.
In her response to the review, Frecklington said that “as the report was finalised prior to the election of the Crisafulli government, its recommendations relating to victims’ rights do not have regard to the government’s positive agenda on victims’ rights”.
“Significant enhancements to the rights of victims have already been legislated in the Making Queensland Safer Act 2024, and the government continues to prioritise the rights of victims as we deliver on our commitments made to Queenslanders at the election.”
The LNP acknowledged last year that it’s “adult crime, adult time” laws “directly discriminate” against children, by limiting their “protection from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”.
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Sarah Joseph, a Griffith university human rights law professor said the government’s move to ditch the recommendations indicates that human rights are not a priority for it.
“The government response is extremely disappointing. They’ve given no reasons for the rejection apart from a comment about victims rights, and it’s not clear to the extent to which they even seriously considered the recommendations. This is not demonstrating a good faith approach to the protection of human rights in Queensland,” she said.
It comes after the attorney general announced an indefinite pause of implementation of major reforms to the state’s discrimination legislation earlier this month.
The CEO of the Basic Rights Queensland community centre, James Farrell, said the two decisions “send a deeply concerning message about its commitment to upholding human rights and protecting Queenslanders from discrimination and harm.”