Using Public Interest Litigation to Achieve Systemic Change for People with a Disability

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Notes

1. See University of Melbourne Law School. What is Public Interest Law. https://law.unimelb.edu.au/students/jd/enrichment/pili/about/what-is-public-interest-law

2. See Public Interest Advocacy Centre. https://piac.asn.au/legal-help/public-interest-cases/

3. See Commonwealth Attorney-General’s department. https://www.ag.gov.au/LegalSystem/Legalaidprogrammes/Commonwealthlegalfinancialassistance/Pages/Commonwealthpublicinterestandtestcases.aspx

4. Indeed, it could be argued that it would have been in the public interest for rugby player Israel Folau to have pursued his claim of religious discrimination against Rugby Australia because there is very little jurisprudence about both religious discrimination in the workplace and the expression of religious conviction in Australia compared to many European countries, for example.

5. Subsequently, however, disability advocacy groups had to fight the government’s plan to remove conductors from trams (Milburn 1992; Magazanik 1993). Conductors were ultimately removed in 1998 after the government endured a protracted battle with unions (Lucas 2010).

6. However, Graeme Innes’ experience shows that people with disability still encounter difficulties in accessing public transport. See also the report of a complaint lodged by a blind woman against Metro, which operates Melbourne’s trains, for failing to provide adequate stop announcements (Sexton 2012).

7. This discussion excludes the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). Section 351 prohibits workplace discrimination but it uses a different enforcement model.

8. MacDermott (2018) has shown that difficulties with obtaining standing and using representative complaint mechanisms make it difficult for groups to seek redress.

9. The claimants were also supported Blind Citizens Australia and the Grata Fund, a relatively new Australian public interest litigation funder.