September 30, 2022

A vital dimension of the work we undertake as a community legal centre is to look beyond our day-to-day advice and representation services to areas of law which we consider warrant review. One such area we have recently turned our attention towards has been the ending of discrimination on the basis of a person’s irrelevant criminal record. Queensland currently has no laws which would prevent discrimination occurring on the basis of someone’s criminal convictions, no matter how unrelated or distant in time they may be to the thing in question. As such, during the preceding year and a half, we have been advocating for specific amendment to the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (Qld). Our advocacy was informed by a research brief from The University of Queensland Pro-Bono Centre. Based on this comprehensive brief, we were then able to draft a submission for consideration by the Human Rights Commission.