Labour Unions and Human Rights in Australia

Abstract The labour movement and the human rights movement have long converged, with labour unions having become a significant actor in Australian human rights scrutiny processes and able to influence legislation concerning marginalized populations. In this paper, we explore the influence of Australian labour unions on human rights in relation to two population groups—people who use drugs and LGBTIQA+ people. This is based on a detailed examination of labour unions’ submissions to the development and review of human rights charters in three Australian jurisdictions—the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, and Queensland—and legislative scrutiny committees in these jurisdictions, with attention to how labour unions adopt human rights analyses and arguments in their submissions. Our analysis has found that there are some areas in which labour unions are strong advocates for advancement of human rights—namely, workers’ rights and women’s rights—and some areas in which labour unions are critical of human rights advancements—namely, criminals’ rights and the right to health. Furthermore, some labour unions have tensions with human rights generally. Often the interest of labour unions in managing public behaviour that impacts workers may be in tension with human rights concerns, and the dominance of labour unions in legislative scrutiny processes can raise issues for human rights-compatible law reform for people who use drugs and LGBTIQA+ people. This paper explores these tensions and charts future directions for research on labour unions and human rights.