Victoria’s human rights watchdog was flooded with inquiries about the state government’s powers during Covid, with the agency reporting a surge in queries and complaints.
The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission is currently working through a backlog of complaints, with a 17% increase recorded this financial year – on top of a 1,445% spike in queries about the powers of the state government in 2020-21, compared to the previous year.
Meanwhile, queries about the right to protest and the powers of Victoria police jumped by 181% in 2020-21.
The commission’s education and engagement director, Lauren Matthews, said inquiries about the powers of the Victorian government were “extremely rare” prior to the pandemic, with the low baseline contributing to the large jump.
“We received a very large volume of inquiries from people questioning whether the Victorian government actually had the power to impose restrictions, limit movement, and mandate vaccines or the wearing of masks,” Matthews said.
“Many of the people who contacted us were highly emotional, concerned about overreach by government and believing that their rights and protections under Victorian law were being breached.”
For the three years to June 2019, the commission averaged just over 8,387 inquiries a year – about 700 inquiries a month.
But in seven months, from July to February, the agency had received 6,065 inquiries – with more than one-third related to Covid. During the same period, the agency received 654 complaints – with more than 80% regarding Covid and mask mandates.
In 2020-21, there was a 42% increase in complaints and a 43% increase in inquiries, with most of the spike fuelled by Covid-related complaints.
Matthews said the agency was still in the process of working through the backlog of complaints that arose during Covid, despite inquiries easing since December as Covid restrictions were relaxed.
“We have also experienced a much more stressed public, particularly during Covid and lockdowns, and that has translated to some people displaying much more challenging behaviour, and that has made it more challenging for our staff to manage,” she said.
The introduction of the vaccine mandate in October and the passing of Covid-related pandemic legislation coincided with a spike in inquiries. The introduction of a mask mandate in August also correlated with a jump in complaint numbers.
The majority of Covid-related complaints were about allegations of disability discrimination. This included people with a disability being denied access to a shop for not wearing a mask despite having a lawful medical exemption from wearing one.
The commission also received a large volume of complaints regarding allegations of Covid-related workplace discrimination.
The commission is responsible for helping people with complaints that relate to discrimination, sexual harassment, victimisation and racial or religious vilification, and it provides a free dispute-resolution service.
The Australian Human Rights Commission has warned it will need to slash one in the three jobs due to what it says is insufficient funding at a time when there has been a record number of complaints. The AHRC said it experienced an 85% increase in complaints over the past two years compared with the average over the previous five.
The AHRC’s annual core funding was slashed from $22.9m to $14.6m in 2017-18 when it shifted from receiving a direct appropriation to grants through the federal attorney general’s department.
