The Principle of Legality: Protecting Rights in Australia

By Siddarth Sethi

In April 2010, the Australian government released its Human Rights Framework, a formal response to the  recommendations  proposed  by the National Human Rights  Consultation chaired  by  Father  Frank  Brennan  AO.  The  Framework  adopted  many  of  the recommendations  put  forth  by  the  Brennan  Committee’s  Report,  including  increasing efforts to educate Australians about their rights, and about the nature of rights protection in  Australia  generally.  However,  the  Australian  government  rejected  the  Committee’s primary recommendation to adopt a statutory bill of rights, or Human Rights Act, modeled on  existing  state  and  territory  legislation  already  operating  in  the  Australian  Capital Territory  and  Victoria.  Due  to  the  lack  of  federal  legislation,  the  judicial  statutory interpretation  principles,  particularly  the  principle  of  legality,  remain  the  primary mechanisms of rights protection in Australia. [1]

Recent High Court decisions including that of Plaintiff S10/2011 v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (‘Plaintiff S10’) suggest that the power of these mechanisms to prevent the government  from  rescinding  fundamental  common  law  rights  has  waned.  [2][1]Additionally, the changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 proposed by the  Abbott  government have  highlighted  concerns  surrounding  the  balance  of  federal rights  protection  mechanisms  and  the  maintenance  of  satisfactory  checks  on  legislative power.  Given  the  current  political  climate,  whether  the  current  principle  of  legality provides adequate rights protection or whether something more, such as the statutory bill of  rights  suggested  by the Brennan Committee,  is needed  has  become  increasingly  more important.

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