Queensland Human Rights Commission (QHRC)
A short factsheet on the Queensland Human Rights Commission: how it grew out of the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland, its establishing Acts, its conciliation role, and the Court of Appeal authority on its complaint-screening power.
Learning outcomes
- Explain how QHRC grew from the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland under the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld), and name both establishing Acts.
- State QHRC's conciliation function and where an unresolved complaint is referred for formal determination.
- Apply the Court of Appeal's holding in Toodayan on the limits of QHRC's complaint-screening power.
Act: Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (Qld), as amended and renamed by the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld).1
Established: The Commission was originally established as the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland (ADCQ) under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991. The Human Rights Act 2019 renamed it the Queensland Human Rights Commission from 1 July 2019 and conferred new human-rights complaint-handling functions, with the Act's substantive human-rights obligations and dispute- resolution jurisdiction commencing later, from 1 January 2020.
Purpose: Under the Anti-Discrimination Act, to promote equality of opportunity and protect against discrimination, sexual harassment and other objectionable conduct. Under the Human Rights Act, additionally to provide a dispute-resolution process for human-rights complaints and to promote understanding, acceptance and public discussion of human rights in Queensland.
Powers conferred under the Act
QHRC receives and conciliates discrimination and human-rights complaints. Under s 139 of the Anti-Discrimination Act, it may decide to accept, reject, or decline to deal further with a complaint — a threshold assessment power, not a power to determine who is ultimately right. In Toodayan v Anti-Discrimination Commissioner [2018] QCA 349,2 the Court of Appeal held that where more than one inference is reasonably open on the facts, it is not for the Commissioner to decide which inference is more probable — that assessment belongs to the tribunal, not the Commission at the screening stage. Unresolved complaints are referred to QCAT (or the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission for work-related matters) for formal hearing and determination.
Is it a prosecuting authority?
No. QHRC "does not try to determine who is right or wrong" — it investigates and attempts resolution through conciliation. It does not itself prosecute or adjudicate; that is QCAT's or the QIRC's role once a complaint is referred on.
How it relates to the other Queensland bodies
QHRC's jurisdiction is discrimination and human-rights complaints specifically, distinct from the Queensland Ombudsman's general maladministration jurisdiction and the Crime and Corruption Commission's corruption-specific jurisdiction. A complaint alleging discrimination on a protected attribute points to QHRC; a complaint that a decision-making process was generally unfair or poorly explained points to the Ombudsman instead.
Self-check
- Have I named both Acts — the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 for establishment, the Human Rights Act 2019 for the rename and expanded function — rather than citing only one?
- Have I described QHRC's s 139 power as a threshold screening power, citing Toodayan [2018] QCA 349, rather than a power to resolve contested facts?
- Have I stated that unresolved complaints go to QCAT or the QIRC, not that QHRC itself determines them?