Anti-Discrimination Commissioner (Tas)
A short factsheet on Tasmania's Anti-Discrimination Commissioner: its establishing Act and its complaint-conciliation function under Tasmania's own, broader-than-federal, discrimination law.
Learning outcomes
- State the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner's establishing Act and its complaint-conciliation function.
- Recognise that Tasmania's Anti-Discrimination Act protects a broader list of attributes than the Commonwealth Acts.
Act: Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 (Tas).1
Established: The Minister appoints, and the term is capped. Section 5(1) provides that the Minister may appoint a person to be the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner for a period not exceeding 5 years and on any terms and conditions the Minister determines. The Act creates an office to be filled rather than a body: no commission, no body corporate. And the appointing authority is a Minister rather than the Governor — compare Tasmania's own Health Complaints Commissioner, where s 5(1) puts the appointment with the Governor. Whose appointment it is matters when the question is how insulated the office is from the executive.
Purpose: The Commissioner receives, investigates and attempts to conciliate complaints of discrimination and other prohibited conduct under Tasmania's own Anti-Discrimination Act — a state law that operates alongside, not instead of, the Commonwealth anti-discrimination Acts.
Where the authority sits
The functions in s 6 are advisory, educative and investigative rather than adjudicative: to advise and make recommendations to the Minister on discrimination and prohibited conduct, to promote recognition of acceptable attitudes, acts and practices, and to consult and inquire into discrimination and its effects. The Commissioner investigates and conciliates; determining a complaint that does not resolve is for the Tribunal, not the Commissioner.
Complaint process mirrors the Commonwealth pattern
Structurally, the process mirrors the Australian Human Rights Commission's own: the Commissioner investigates and attempts conciliation first; only if conciliation fails or is inappropriate does a complaint proceed toward a tribunal or court. Tasmania's Act is often noted for protecting a broader list of attributes than the Commonwealth Acts cover individually — a student should check the current Tasmanian Act's specific list rather than assuming Commonwealth and Tasmanian coverage are identical.
Is it a prosecuting authority?
No. The Act's scheme is complaint, investigation and conciliation, with unresolved matters referred onward for determination. The Commissioner brings no prosecution, and a fact pattern in which the Commissioner "charges" someone has mistaken an investigative office for a prosecuting one.
How it relates to the other bodies
A person may have a choice between a Tasmanian complaint to this Commissioner and a Commonwealth complaint to the AHRC where the conduct is covered by both regimes — but the two are not interchangeable where an attribute or area of public life is protected under only one of them.
Self-check
- Have I identified the Commissioner's conciliation-first process, not an adjudicative one?
- Have I recognised that Tasmanian and Commonwealth anti-discrimination coverage are not identical, rather than assuming one subsumes the other?