Discrimination law

This unit examines discrimination as a social and legal phenomenon, as one of the main areas in which Australia has sought to explicitly enshrine human rights protection. Discrimination law prohibits a range of direct and indirect conduct that perpetrates inequality on the basis of protected attributes, such as sex, race and disability. However, Australian discrimination law retains significant flaws and lags behind contemporary developments in comparable jurisdictions such as Canada, New Zealand, and the UK - especially regarding systemic, preventative measures.

This unit explores the key features and framework of discrimination law in Australia: its social context, underlying concepts and theories, federal and state/territory interactions, prohibitions of unlawful discrimination, protection of particular attributes, and use of exceptions and exemptions. Throughout, the focus will be on the following: to what extent is discrimination law an effective system in addressing, redressing, and preventing discrimination? Could it be improved and reformed, and if so how?