Affirming age: making federal anti-discrimination regulation work for older Australians

The debate surrounding the harmonisation and consolidation of federal anti-discrimination laws offers an opportunity to address some of the regulatory flaws in the legislative framework governing age discrimination. This article contends that, while such legislative reforms are necessary, they are not sufficient; and that anti-discrimination laws need to play a bigger part in structuring proactive responses to the problem of workplace age discrimination. It argues that there is greater scope for reframing the obligations to impose specific duties, reporting requirements, and affirmative action strategies as supplements to the established approach of providing an apparatus for resolving individual complaints and the regulatory structures to encourage and enforce compliance.