The Australian Feminist Legislation Project is the world’s first feminist legislation project. It brings together academics, lawyers and activists across Australia to amend existing legislation or draft new legislation with the explicit aim of promoting the needs and rights of women, non-binary, gender diverse and transgender populations.
Participants in the project received advice and training on statutory drafting from the senior Parliamentary Counsel to help ensure that the legislation is legally plausible, technically correct and as close as possible to what could exist in the real world. The work of the Australian Feminist Legislation Project will be published in July 2024 in Becky Batagol, Kate Seear, Heli Askola and Jamie Walvisch (Eds) The Feminist Legislation Project: Re-writing Laws for Gender-based Justice (Routledge: Taylor and Francis 2024).
A/Prof Penovic has contributed two Bills and Second Reading Speeches to the project with A/Prof Julie Debeljak from Monash University, re-writing Victoria’s Charter on Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 by comprehensively updating its rights and enforcement mechanisms, with expert commentaries provided by Kate Eastman AM SC and Pamela Tate AM KC.