Human rights scrutiny in Tasmania’s Parliament: Time to move beyond the smoke and mirrors

There is an emerging body of empirical work on the role and impact of human rights analysis in parliamentary processes. One strand of this research aims to scrutinise claims that Parliament is better positioned to protect human rights than the courts. This chapter aims to make a contribution to this empirical work by examining the progress of a number of recent Bills before the Tasmanian Parliament. In particular, it identifies the role played by human rights norms as well as the mechanisms for highlighting human rights concerns for the benefit of Members of Parliament and civil society. The case studies chosen involve policy initiatives in the period 2013-2018 that provoked public controversy and which have important human rights dimensions, including an anti-protest Bill, a reproductive rights Bill, three proposals to amend anti-discrimination law to further protect religious freedom and a ban on motorcycle gang ‘club colours’.