Judicial Innovation Under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act: Lessons for Queensland?

Abstract

In 2016, the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee of Queensland Parliament issued a report on its ‘Inquiry into a possible Human Rights Act for Queensland.’ In the course of deliberations over this document, the Committee looked at the operation of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act (‘NZBORA’). The purpose of this article is to provide for a Queensland audience an account of the NZBORA’s central features, how these came to be, what the instrument was thought likely to do, and the way that the judiciary has applied it since first entering into force.