The proposed new Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill should be amended so that it is unlawful to discriminate against a person because of their housing status, says the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
PIAC will deliver this message to the Standing Senate Committee of Legal and Constitutional Affairs at a public hearing today.
PIAC chief executive, Edward Santow, will tell the the Senate Committee that such an amendment would ensure the bill better protects homeless people, and people living in public housing, from discrimination.
Mr Santow will also argue for an amendment to allow disadvatanged people easier access to the full protections of Australia’s anti-discrimination law.
PIAC and the National Association of Community Legal Centres (NACLAC) appear before the Senate Committee at 9:45am today.
Read PIAC’s submission (pdf) on the Exposure Draft of the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012.
Photo: PIAC’s Edward Santow, right, outside Parliament House with Anna Brown from the Human Rights Law Centre (back row, left); Edwina MacDonald from Kingsford Legal Centre (back row, right); Jo Schulman from the Redfern Legal Centre (middle row, left); Michelle Cohen from PIAC (middle row, centre); Camilla Pandolfini from PIAC (middle row, right); Frieda Lee from NACLAC (front row, left) and Anna Cody from the Kingsford Legal Centre (front row, centre).