2020-02-11 Services and Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA   11 FEBRUARY 2020




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SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                            11 FEBRUARY 2020

           COUNCIL POLICY - HUMAN RIGHTS

           Human Rights Complaints
           Under the Act, a person who believes a public entity has breached their human rights obligations
           has the right to complain and seek remedies.'° There are three ways a person can make a complaint
           which includes:

               e  Internal complaints;
               e  Independent complaints; and,
               e  Raising the Act in courts and tribunals.
                   1. Internal Complaints
           An individual must first raise a complaint directly with Council. Council has 45 days to respond, after
           which the individual can make a formal complaint to the Queensland Human Rights Commission
           (QHRC) if the complaint has not been responded to or the person is not satisfied with Council’s
           response.
           In order to ensure that a complaint is handled in the most efficient manner, Council requests that
           complainants:
               e  Clearly identify the issues of complaint, or ask for help from Council staff to do this;
               e  Give Council all the available information in support of the complaint in an organised format
                  and not provide any information that is intentionally misleading or knowingly wrong or
                  vexatious;
               e  Cooperate with the Council's inquiries or investigations; and
               e  Treat staff with courtesy and respect.
           A person can make a human rights complaint to Council as follows:
               e  via Council’s online form and sent to [email protected][email protected]} or
               e  telephone or in person at our Customer Service Centre, located at 9 Pelican Street, Tewantin
                  QLD 4565; or
               e  by post and addressed to:
                          Governance Branch,
                          Noosa Shire Council
                          PO Box 141
                         TEWANTIN QLD 4565

           Council's complaint management process is outlined in Attachment A.
                  2.  Independent complaints
           A person can also raise a complaint about human rights with the QHRC or another independent
           body. In order to accept complaints under the Act, the QHRC must be satisfied that:
               e    Acomplaint has first been made to the public entity alleged to have breached the Act.
               e    Atleast 45 business days have elapsed since the complaint was made to the public entity.
               e    The complainant has not received a response to their complaint, or has received an
                    inadequate response.
           For further details on QHRC’s complaint process, please refer to:|https://www.qhrc.qid.gov.au/

           10 Human Rights Act 2019 (QLD) div 2.

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