Justine Nolan, director of the Australian Human Rights Institute, says that Australia's approach to human rights has historically been "very ad hoc", making it difficult for people to understand what their human rights are and seek recourse if those rights have been abused.
"There's no holistic approach to it in Australia and sometimes rights, like rights to housing and laws around that, differ from state to state, so it becomes very difficult to follow," Nolan said.
"What a human rights act does is try to basically say, 'Here is the global standard which we've agreed to and which we've put into effect.'"
Four in five Australians want a bill of rights — what could it look like? By Elfy Scott, SBS News