Constitution poses no obstacle to national Human Rights Act

Concerns that a national Human Rights Act would fall foul of the Constitution can be confidently put aside, President of the Australian Human Rights Commission Cathy Branson QC said today.

Ms Branson said constitutional validity of a national Human Rights Act was questioned earlier this year by former High Court Judge Michael McHugh who expressed doubts that elements of the proposed model were constitutionally valid.

“To clear the air, the Australian Human Rights Commission recently held a roundtable, bringing together some of Australia’s leading constitutional and human rights lawyers, including Mr McHugh and former Chief Justice Sir Anthony Mason, to discuss the constitutional validity of a Human Rights Act,” Ms Branson said.

“The roundtable reached unanimous agreement on a number of important issues, most importantly, that a Human Rights Act can be drafted in a way that is constitutionally valid.”

Read the the full roundtable report on the AHRC web-site