Funding allocated for Attorney General’s human rights consultations

The Rudd Government’s promised human rights act consultations seem to be well on track with allocations for this purpose of around $2.8 million in the Attorney General Department’s budget. The budget papers noted that a national consultation is a priority.

A resolution calling for state level consultations was not endorsed at the recent NSW state Labor conference but on a more positive note the conference did pass a resolution supporting the federal consultations:

“Conference commends Federal Attorney General Robert McClelland on his announced support for a public inquiry about how best to recognise and protect the human rights and freedoms enjoyed by all Australians, in accordance with the National Platform.

Conference believes such an inquiry, allowing the fullest possible community consultation, is the appropriate process to deal with calls for additional legislative implementation of Australias international human rights obligations”.

Watch this space for future information regarding the nature and timing of these consultations.