Bid to fix Australian Human Rights Commission’s financial shortfall

Negotiations over a long-term ­solution to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s ­financial fragility underpin its ­latest corporate plan.

Australian Human Rights Commission president Rosalind Croucher in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Negotiations over a long-term ­solution to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s ­financial fragility underpin its ­latest corporate plan, with more help needed to fund commissioners’ roles, tackle a substantial backlog of complaints accumulated during the Covid-19 ­pandemic and establish a ­sustainable funding framework.

“Over the past year, financial pressures that have been building over many years have culminated in an unsustainable financial situation,” commission president Rosalind Croucher says in the preface to the 2023-26 plan.

“We continue to negotiate with the government about a response to address the long-term cost pressures we face, to ensure that we have capacity to support the work of our statutory commissioners and address the exponential increase in discrimination and human rights complaints received over recent years.”

The report says dealing with the significant and sustained increase in complaints would be a priority in the next two years and require “additional capacity and funding commitments from government”.

Complaints were up by 35 per cent to an annual record of 3113 during the pandemic in 2020-21 and increased again by 20 per cent in 2021-22.

The commission has already cut full-time equivalent staff by 21 per cent in the year to June 30, instituted internal governance and financial reforms and a corporate restructure and received a $16m bailout from the federal government last financial year to stay afloat.

Professor Croucher, who is in the sixth year of her seven-year presidency, accepted responsibility for some financial mis­management during a grilling from a senate estimates committee in April, but said that it was only part of the problem, which also included government under-resourcing of the commission.

In the corporate report, ­Professor Croucher identified institutional integrity as the commission’s other main challenge given the UN-sanctioned Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions ­deferred renewal of its usual “A status” in March, ­citing concerns with the process for selecting and appointing commissioners.

In July, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus introduced legislation to ensure future appointments would be made through a merit-based and transparent process.

The alliance will revisit the issue in October next year.