Government strengthens anti-discrimination protection for older Australians

Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, and Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, have announced that the Rudd Government will amend the Age Discrimination Act 2004 to remove the ‘dominant reason’ test.

The current test means that a person’s age must be the dominant reason for something to constitute discrimination under the Act.

This is inconsistent with the other federal unlawful discrimination laws.

Despite the former Government introducing this test in 2004, a bipartisan report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs ‘Older People and the Law’ recommended its removal in 2007.

The Rudd Government accepts this bipartisan recommendation and will amend the Act so that a person need only show that their age was one of the reasons they were discriminated against.

Its removal will harmonise the Act with other federal unlawful discrimination laws, and better align it to state and territory laws.

The Government intends to introduce the amendment into Parliament later this year.