Page 4208 - Week 13 - Thursday, 19 November 2015

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The second major aspect of the bill is the merger of the guardianship section of the Public Advocate and the Office of the Public Trustee. The bill amends the Human Rights Commission Act 2005 to establish these new positions, redistribute functions within the commission and introduce a number of new mechanisms to support the improved governance, strategic planning and coordination of the commission’s service oversight and advocacy functions.

Turning to the functions of the president of the commission, who will also be the human rights commissioner, the president will have a wide range of functions designed to facilitate the effective and efficient leadership of the commission and the discharge of its functions. The president will also have the power to exercise any function of any other commissioner under the Human Rights Commission Act or any other territory law. This will empower the president to provide agile and flexible leadership of the commission, assist the commission to build its depth of corporate knowledge, and maximise its ability to deliver reliable, timely and effective services that are responsive to the needs of the people they seek to advocate and represent. The intention is to place the president in the position of having the necessary powers to lead the commission and the authority to assist commissioners to perform their functions if necessary. It will also enable the president to manage situations where commissioners are not in agreement or are otherwise conflicted.

Importantly, the president will not, however, have power to review the decisions of the commissioners in relation to individual complaints or advocacy decisions. It would seriously diminish the independence of a statutory office if their decisions were open to review by other independent statutory office holders.

The presidential role, though, is not only administrative. They will be responsible for the high-level and strategic governance functions of the commission. This will include responsibility for the coordination of reports under various reporting powers contained in the Human Rights Commission Act. The aim of this function is to improve the strategic planning, cohesiveness and public profile of systemic advocacy work undertaken by the commission. The president will also have a general function of reporting in writing to the minister on systemic matters.

These amendments also clarify that the president is responsible for the delivery of key law reform and systemic advocacy work where it affects the commission generally or is produced for the commission as a whole and results in a formal written report to the minister. This high-level strategic and direction-setting advocacy is not intended to prevent the individual commissioners undertaking systemic work in their areas of responsibility. Better coordination of systemic work will address recommendations of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts that the systemic advocacy processes of the commission and Public Advocate be improved, recommendations contained in the committee’s Review of Auditor-General’s report No. 1 of 2013: Care and protection system, tabled in the Assembly in September this year.

The bill will require the president to deliver three key documents which will form a solid foundation for the efficient and effective operation of the Human Rights Commission. Firstly, the president will be required to develop a corporate support and


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