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Attorney-General reaffirms need for consolidation on Sky

5 August 2012
PAUL KELLY:  What are the major areas of achievement that you'd like to see realised in your period as Attorney?

NICOLA ROXON:  Well, I'd like to make sure that we do settle a range of processes that are underway.  People underestimate the complexity of consolidating our Sex Discrimination Act and Race Discrimination Act and others.  Some of them have been in place for ten or twenty years, they all have different standards, they're very confusing for business and I actually think this whole debate has matured.  So being able to say clearly what discrimination means, employers knowing what they have to do to comply with it and actually turning that into a normal part of Australian life, I think, is an important thing to do.

PETER VAN ONSELEN:       Can I ask on that.  Presumably if you consolidate them all, some of them will, by definition, need to become stronger or more lax, if they're all consolidated in one space.  Where are the changes likely to be?

NICOLA ROXON:      Well, we've said that we will raise to the highest possible standard.  In some instances it's not practical, there are some differences in disability discrimination and race discrimination, but the sort of overarching philosophy is to simplify and to lift to the higher standard.  And we've been quite public about that in our discussion papers and that's been very well received.  I think even business here is potentially very supportive because they want the simplification.  It may mean that some of the standards are a bit higher, but it means they'll be able to apply one set of rules within their workplace and that would be good for everybody.

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