ABSTRACT The paramount focus of Professor Beth Gaze's research has been on improving access to justice for people bringing discrimination complaints in Australia. Much of the work has focused on critical issues, such as power imbalance, lack of access to resources, the complexity of the complaint process and the lack of a legal framework for the resolution of disputes. This paper picks up one of these themes. Its focus is on the legal framework in which the statutory discrimination laws operate—the element of causation—which is the reasoning for the treatment of applicants. This requires the applicant to prove that, by comparison, the applicant was treated differently and that one of the reasons the treatment occurred was the relevant attribute. My paper concerns the ambiguity and lack of clarity concerning what the applicant needs to prove. These are significant barriers for people making complaints of discrimination. The laws in Victoria and ACT provide the most simplicity and are the easiest to navigate. The causation provisions in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) present a more difficult proposition for an applicant to prove despite the reverse onus of proof.

ABSTRACT Political apology has been increasingly deployed as a means for liberal democratic states to make amends with their LGBTIQ communities. Even though homosexual law reform began some 50 years ago, liberal democracies are still in the process of addressing past ill treatment of members of these communities. Redress has been slow and inconsistent, though over the past decade, parliaments have deployed apologies to address such wrongs, suggesting a state of transformation. Political apologies have been offered to these communities in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand, usually linked to other significant legal developments, such as the passing of expungement legislation. This paper critically examines the role of a political apology as a gesture that recognises past wrongdoing by the state; a ceremony that allows testimony of past and continuing mistreatment to be expressed; and as an opportunity to mark progress in gaining equality. Drawing on parliamentary debates, this paper demonstrates that while there are some positive outcomes for all parties, apologies mask continuing discrimination and breaches of human rights for LGBTIQ citizens in democratic states.

ABSTRACT Western Australia (WA) remains without a stand-alone human rights legislation, such as a Human Rights Act (HRA). This vacuum impacts the human rights of Western Australians in a broad range of systems and settings, including mental health. To support its realisation and effective implementation, we present a three-part case for an HRA for WA, highlighting its potential to transform mental health governance and drive systemic reform. Firstly, we introduce WA’s existing mental health system, emphasising governance and human rights issues faced by people who use it. Secondly, we outline a potential HRA in WA, referencing insights from other jurisdictions and the Parliamentary Joint Committee’s Inquiry into Australia’s Human Rights Framework. Thirdly, we demonstrate how an HRA can—if adequately implemented—drive both systemic and individual-level improvements in WA’s mental health system. We argue that a rights focus drives reform of mental health laws and improvements in systems management, the commissioning and oversight of services, internal governance mechanisms of services and workforce capability. Similarly, it would enhance individuals’ experiences of the system by providing remedies where a public mental health service failed to properly consider or comply with their human rights.

ABSTRACT Interactions between private landlords and tenants are increasingly mediated by digital platforms, AI and automated systems. While vendors of rental technologies promise landlords efficiency, convenience and objectivity, reports of bias-based profiling, price inflation, and tenant surveillance point to a bleak future for renters under ‘automated landlordism’. In recent years, calls to centre human rights standards in the regulation of both landlord–tenant relations and the design and use of AI and automation have grown. This article considers potential approaches to incorporating the right to adequate housing into domestic legal responses to the use of AI and automated systems in the private rental sector. Three possibilities are discussed. First, the right to adequate housing as a guide to interpreting existing laws that intersect with rental technologies, focusing on privacy legislation as an example. Second, positive duties for technology firms to protect against violations of housing rights. Third, the right as a source of objectives and benchmarks for ethical and beneficial design. It argues that the right to adequate housing offers a coherent and context-sensitive framework within which new legal duties and standards can be developed, and existing laws interpreted, to encourage the socially beneficial deployment of rental technologies.

ABSTRACT This article analyses the Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017 (Vic) (‘YRPA’) to determine whether the Act is a step towards implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (‘UNDRIP’) in Victoria (Australia) by incorporating Traditional Owners’ independent advisory roles, the Woi-wurrung language and Indigenous aspirations as part of the Birrarung’s (Yarra River’s) management. This article first outlines the Traditional Owners’ custodianship of the Birrarung, the river’s colonial governance, and the community movement that led to the enactment of the YRPA. Particular attention is then given to the Act’s preamble, the Birrarung Council sections, the Yarra protection principles and the Yarra Strategic Plan. Australia’s obligations under, and the significant legal weight of, UNDRIP are highlighted before considering the YRPA from a UNDRIP perspective. While the YRPA does not formally and adequately implement UNDRIP, the Act represents an essential first step in acknowledging Indigenous Peoples’ rights and aspirations in water resource management in Victoria. Notwithstanding the urgent need to formally and meaningfully implement UNDRIP across Australia, Victoria’s legislation signals a sense of positive change. The author hopes this article facilitates a deeper discussion and self-reflection on Australia’s and civil society’s obligations to implement and uphold UNDRIP.

ABSTRACT Businesses systemically exploit migrant workers across numerous industries in Australia. As in other countries, the vast majority of unlawful employer conduct goes unchecked because labour enforcement systems are weak and most migrants choose to not report exploitation. Migrants stay silent for fear that coming forward could jeopardise their visa and future stay. This creates an accountability deficit among exploitative employers – a challenge that has eluded migrant workers in every country, until now. This article sets out a proposal developed by the authors to establish a new Workplace Justice Visa and protections against visa cancellation to enable migrants to pursue labour remedies. The Australian government largely adopted the proposal in July 2024 as a 2-year pilot. The model aims to both empower migrant workers to obtain remedies and expand labour law enforcement capacity by enabling more non-government actors to hold unscrupulous employers to account. It ensures that the labour regulator is not the sole gatekeeper of these protections, by ensuring protections are available to migrants taking action against their employer through employment lawyers and trade unions. This article considers key elements of the model and underlying policy considerations in the context of lessons learned from approaches in other countries.

ABSTRACT This article traces a number of historical junctions to show the limited normative and political purchase of human rights in addressing Palestinian demands for sovereignty and self-determination. The article shows how Israel speaks about and addresses itself to normalised settler colonial conditions that constitutively exclude Palestinians. Under these conditions, law and rights are wielded as technologies of rules that presuppose and articulate hierarchies of standings and claims that preclude Palestinian sovereignty and self-determination. Even though, historically, Palestinians have attempted different methods to engage international law and human rights, they repeatedly came up against a geopolitical structure of domination nested in a normative order that either relegates them figuratively outside its border or includes them only as an object of governance.

ABSTRACT Rio Tinto, a significant global extractive industry corporation, has been for almost two decades exploring large lithium reserves, purchasing land in Jadar Valley southwest of Belgrade in Serbia, and attempting to start extraction. In 2017, the Serbian government granted Rio Tinto a license to start extraction despite fierce opposition from civil society. This article critically analyses the successful social movement campaign against Rio Tinto’s lithium project in Jadar Valley as an example of a bottom-up approach to business and human rights. It discusses and critically analyses the social movement against the current state of affairs in the areas of business and human rights in Serbia. It finds that a successful campaign against the Jadar project was possible due to the broad coalition of civil society and political actors. It remains to be determined if such a social movement against Rio Tinto was a one-time event or if it propelled a more systemic approach to business and human rights in Serbia and beyond.