Wendy Lacey

Ageing in South Australia 2016: insights from the aged care sector

The report examines the attitudes, expectations and strategies of agencies working in aged care in South Australia in 2016. It sets out to document the business conditions and perceived opportunities affecting the sector at a time of considerable transition, with a view to establishing a baseline of information that permits the monitoring of change over time, and helps inform both business growth and the formation of government policy. The data presented in this report represents a unique set of insights into South Australia’s aged care sector at a time when it prepares for, and experiences, change. The data presented here was collected from February to May 2016 via an on-line survey sent to the CEOs of identifiable providers of aged care services in the state. This data collection will be repeated over the coming years to provide a snapshot of both change and emerging issues and accompanies research into the perspectives of aged care consumers in South Australia in 2016.

Beyond the legalese and rhetoric: improving human rights protection in Australia

The National Human Rights Consultation recently conducted in Australia and culminating in the governments new Human Rights Framework engaged a remarkable number of Australians on the question of how to better protect human rights, short of modifying the Constitution. However, the debate was frequently dominated by polemical views (often waged among lawyers) in which rhetoric and legalese flourished. Pro-rights groups almost universally supported the adoption of a Human Rights Act based on the so-called dialogue model, represented in statutes adopted in the United Kingdom, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory. This article examines that preferred model — as supported by the report of the Consultative Committee, but ultimately not adopted by government — within the context of the Australian constitutional framework. It concludes that, although it is capable of working well at the state and territory levels in Australia, the model (at least in its present form) sits uneasily within Australias federal constitutional context. While charter proponents have been at pains to assert the constitutional validity of the dialogue model, validity alone is not the only concern; the legitimacy of the High Court is also potentially weakened through the conferral of a remedial power incompatible with the courts role in conducting judicial review. Consequently, calls for a dialogue model charter at the federal level, containing the declaration of incompatibility as its centerpiece, are rejected. Instead, two alternative reform options are presented: the first involving a variation of the preferred dialogue model; the other involving a suite of alternative reforms similar to, but more far-reaching than, those recommended by the Brennan Committee. With Australias Human Rights Framework set to be reviewed in 2014 (Commonwealth of Australia 2010, 3), such proposals remain relevant to the ongoing discussion that is set to continue over the coming years.