Fast facts about Charters of Rights in Australia:
- ‘Domestic’ Charters of Rights have been operating in Australia for about nine years in sum (ACT and Victoria).
- There is no power to sue a Church, Christian school or Christian organisation under any existing Charter or the proposed federal version.
- There is only one instance of religious freedom being reviewed by courts using a Charter: the court curtailed equality laws at the request of a religious group. See the case: YMCA-Ascot Vale Leisure Centre (Anti-Discrimination Exemption) [2009] VCAT 765.
- The largest impact of the Victorian and ACT Charters is on government agencies delivering public services. The ACT and Victorian courts have referred to the Charter for interpretive guidance relatively rarely.
- There is one instance to date where a court has declared a law to be incompatible with the Charter (Victoria, March 2010). The law in question remains in full force until Parliament decides otherwise. See the case: R v Momcilovic [2010] VSCA 50.
- One Victorian law was recently passed by Parliament as openly incompatible with the Charter. It remains in full force regardless of the court’s response.
- There are several reported cases of families being assisted by Charters. Recently, the Charter has mandated that public servants take family life into consideration when making decisions involving eviction notices. See the court’s decision here.