Sent to OZADVOCACY, Australia's disability rights/advocacy email discussion
list.
Of course-- not only people with disabilities will be affected by the
proposed changes. People making complaints under the Race Discrimination
Act or the Sex Discrimination Act could also face legal costs, if their
cases went to arbitration.
- Ria
-----
From: Robin Banks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
People may have heard rumours or even read about the proposed changes that
will move hearings of disability discrimination complaints from the Human
Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) into the Federal Court.
The Bill to make this happen will be going back into the Federal House of
Representatives next Thursday (11 March 1999).
While there is a major benefit of this change: decisions that can be
enforced; there are several concerns that some disability groups have been
lobbying federal parliamentarians to change.
1. Lack of awareness of federal court judges of the experiences of people
with disabilities.
2. Court fees: unlike HREOC there is a fee to have a complaint dealt with
by the Federal Court and this fee may stop people with disabilities from
taking their complaint to the court.
3. Legal Costs: unlike HREOC, the Federal Court is what is called a 'costs
jurisdiction'. This means that the person or organisation that loses in
court is almost invariably ordered to pay the legal costs of the winning side.
The third of these will cause extreme problems for people with complaints
of discrimination, particularly people with disabilities.
I have attached a draft paper I have written that outlines some of the
reasons this is a particular problem for people with disabilities. It is
my view that the legal costs issue will effectively stop anyone with a
disability from taking legal action through to a hearing.
I urge everyone to read the attachment and contact their local federal
politician to express concern about these problems.
Please feel free to contact me for more information.
Robin Banks
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Co-ordinator
NSW Disability Discrimination Legal Centre
Shop 99, 1-5 Meeks Street, Kingsford 2032
Ph: 02 9313 6000
Fax: 02 9662 1364
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