The final report and recommendations of the QHRC’s Review of Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Act were tabled in state parliament on 1st September 2022 and are now available for public viewing. Building belonging: Review of Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 sets out a path forward to ensure the law is effective in protecting people from discrimination and sexual harassment. This review is the first holistic reconsideration of the Act since its commencement and provided an excellent and timely opportunity to look at whether the Act continues, in the words of its preamble, to ‘reflect the aspirations and needs of contemporary society’ – including the need to belong. The report includes 46 recommendations to strengthen and clarify discrimination law, by:
- shifting the focus to prevention of discrimination and harassment before it happens, instead of solely relying on people subjected to it to make complaints;
- extending protections to ensure everyone who needs protecting under the Act is included; and
- making the law easier to understand and apply by modernising the language and definitions, and streamlining the complaints process to make it more flexible and efficient.