Parliament would check laws against UN Indigenous rights
Parliament already checks new laws against seven world human rights deals. Indigenous peoples are the first peoples of a land. In Australia they are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Senator Lidia Thorpe's bill would add the United Nations statement on their rights to that list. The United Nations is the world body where countries work together.
Official name: Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Amendment (Consideration of UNDRIP) Bill 2023
- A law makes Parliament check bills against a list of world human rights deals.
- This bill would add the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as an eighth item.
- A group of MPs and senators could then report on whether laws respect First Peoples' rights. One is the right to be asked first and to say yes or no freely.
- The Senate voted the bill down in February 2025. It was put back on the Senate's to-do list in September 2025.
Who it affects
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples: New and old federal laws could be checked against the rights in the United Nations statement.
- The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights: This group of MPs and senators could look at these rights when it checks bills, rules and old laws.
- Ministers and MPs who bring in bills: The human rights notes that come with their bills would be measured against a longer list of rights.
Rights checks skip Indigenous declaration
In 2011 Parliament passed the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act. It says every new bill must come with a short report on how it affects human rights. So must many rules made by ministers.
The Act also set up the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. It is a group of MPs and senators from both houses. We will call it the rights group. It looks at bills and laws and reports on how they affect human rights.
The Act explains what human rights are by pointing to seven world human rights deals. These are treaties, which are formal deals between countries. Australia has signed up to all seven.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is not on that list. It is a statement from the United Nations about the rights of first peoples around the world. We will call it the Indigenous rights statement.
The United Nations agreed to it on 13 September 2007. Australia said it supported it in 2009.
Senator Lidia Thorpe is a senator who is not in a party. She brought this bill. Her notes on the bill say Australia supports the statement but has not used it when making laws and policy.
UNDRIP added to list
The bill makes one main change. It adds the Indigenous rights statement to the meaning of human rights in section 3 of the Act. It would be the eighth item.
It also adds a note saying where to find the statement on the United Nations website. Her notes say this is needed because it is a statement, not a treaty.
Countries do not have to follow statements by law. This one is also not printed in Australia's official set of treaties.
Her notes say the statement does not create new rights. They say it explains how human rights that already exist apply to First Peoples.
What changes in practice
The rights group could think about these rights when it looks at bills, ministers' rules and old laws. It could do so in its other investigations too. That includes ones the Attorney-General, the minister for the law, asks it to do.
Her notes give one example. It is called free, prior and informed consent. It means First Peoples are asked about choices that affect them before the choices are made. They get all the facts. Each community's own customs are followed.
Say a future bill changes how water from a river near a First Nations community is managed. The rights group could report on whether the community was asked first and freely agreed.
The rights group can only report. It cannot stop a law. Her notes say Parliament can still pass laws that do not respect human rights.
Her notes say passing this bill would not replace other steps. They name three steps. One is writing the statement into Australian law. Another is making federal laws match it. The last is making a plan of action.
Waiting in the Senate
This is a private bill. That means a government minister did not bring it in. Senator Thorpe brought it into the Senate, Parliament's second house, on 29 November 2023.
The Senate debated it on 13 February 2025. It voted against the main idea of the bill. That vote stopped the bill.
On 1 September 2025, the bill was put back on the Senate's to-do list. So it can be debated again.
To become law, it would need to win a vote on its main idea in the Senate. Then it would need to pass the House of Representatives.
It would start the day after the Governor-General, who stands in for the King, signed it into law.
Its journey through Parliament
| 29 Nov 2023 | Senate: Introduced and read a first time |
| 29 Nov 2023 | Senate: Second reading moved |
| 13 Feb 2025 | Senate: Second reading debate |
| 13 Feb 2025 | Senate: Second reading negatived |
| 01 Sep 2025 | Senate: Restored to Notice Paper |