Wednesday, 21 September 2022

 Mr LIMBRICK (South Eastern Metropolitan) (12:13): My question is to the Attorney-General. During the pandemic response there have been a number of human rights that have been limited by the actions of the government, such as the right to freedom of movement, the right to peaceful assembly, the right to freedom from medical treatments without full and free consent and I would also argue even the right to participate in public life. I have also been very disappointed with what I would see as the failure of our Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities and some of the lack of action by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. My question to the Attorney-General is simply this: what has the Attorney done during the pandemic response and in relation to the pandemic response to defend human rights in Victoria?

 Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:14): I thank Mr Limbrick for his question, and of course it was a Labor government that introduced the charter of human rights, a really important set of principles that underpin all government decisions and have to be applied to all legislation et cetera. It is nation leading. Other states are looking at our charter. I think there is a conversation around whether there should be a federal approach et cetera. These are important principles that apply to the state of Victoria, and appropriately so. When it comes to the assessment of rights and whether there are any limitations in relation to those rights, they undergo a balancing exercise, for example, and in relation to any of the restrictions that were applied for the protection of the health and wellbeing of the state, those assessments were completed by the appropriate authorities in relation to providing that advice or indeed enacting that advice.

 Mr LIMBRICK (South Eastern Metropolitan) (12:15): I thank the Attorney for her response. My second question is probably quite predictable. I would like to see in the next Parliament better protections for human rights in Victoria, and I would ask the Attorney, if she is so fortunate as to be re-elected and the Attorney-General, what does she plan to do in the future to protect the human rights of Victorians?

 Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:15): I like the confidence that you are oozing in the fact that I might have the opportunity to further look at the charter of human rights and these issues in the next Parliament. I lie awake at night thinking about a lot of things I would like to do if I continue to be the Attorney-General next term. The human rights charter is obviously something that has been around for some time, and I would like to have a conversation about what that might look like in the future, without giving you any commitments around a definitive assessment or change or anything like that. But of course I think I have said in this place numerous times that justice reform is never done. It will never be done. I will never complete this job. Someone else will have to take it on after me. In relation to reforms to better protect Victorians, it is something that I am quite passionate about and it is something I would love to have continued responsibility for and continued conversations with people in this chamber on, regardless of what it looks like.