Reviewing Victoria’s Charter of rights and the limits to our democracy

Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, as a parliamentary bill of rights, is arguably a more democratic instrument than a judicial or constitutional model, but is a soft model of rights regulation that leaves the sovereignty of parliament unconstrained. The 2015 Review of the Charter identified that the Charter had failed as a driver of a human rights culture and major obstacles remained to it providing effective redress for rights violations. This article considers the major design and operational recommendations together with the government’s response to date. It is argued that this response reflects the dominant liberal political culture, buttressed as it is by an unquestioned faith in certain ideas and institutions, and that, taken together, these act to limit the Charter’s potential to protect and promote rights.