An overview of the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld)

QCOSS Principal Advisor Monica Taylor introduces the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld), and gives a brief history and overview of similar legislation in Australia.
This video was adapted from a capacity-building workshop as part of the QCOSS Human Rights, Housing and Homelessness project. It is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such. The resources were created in June 2020.

[@qp4904]

As a person with severe disabilities who has been on the Qld public housing wait list for 17 years and been ignored, I find human rights to be a joke. In the least they are ignored by the Qld Government and their delivery of services. The implementation of Human Rights law in Qld, excluding the right to an adequate standard of living is absurd. Australia ratified that Covenant in 1948. 1948! And yet, you can apparently have the right to access products as a person with disability but not to then take those products home to a safe and stable environment. Absurd and laughs in the face of vulnerable people and makes us feel that as we keep being told through government inaction, we don't matter. Why is the Moreton Bay Housing Service Centre and the Qld government still telling me I cannot have somewhere for my disability support worker to sleep so I can access overnight disability support? Why are they still saying thye won't provide me with space for my disability equipment? Why are they saying I have to sleep on the couch still, after 6 months of doing so because the emergency housing they provided isn't at all appropriate? How is that acceptable and how is that in line with Qld Human Rights legislation and the Anti-Discrimination Act? I am proof the Qld Government openly ignores human rights and expects people with disabilities to continue to suffer and become more disabled. Again, 17 YEARS waiting for a safe and stable home.

[@makhenaten]

Great, I want to lodge a complaint re govt Centrelink policy of forcing me to do more than I’m able, or even required to do ( 15 hrs wkly - yet I do more ), at 61, since they don’t recognise my self employed hours, nor recognise my care time obligations I’ve had to give to my mother, and still intimidate me as at risk of losing my benefit if I don’t follow Workforce Australia directives (APM ) to damn well get an extra EMPLOYEE type job instead ( which gives commission to APM )and a full time one, even though at my age part time is the requirement, that they consider to be REAL work. I wasn’t able to get a carer payment either, as mum doesn’t satisfy the means test, and they say my self employed taxable income is not high enough to have my hours recognised. I am already pushed to my energy limit, and I feel my human rights are violated by this narcissistic inflexibility. Is it only Deception Bay , or do all Centrelink offices behave in this reprehensible way?