As a former litigation lawyer, and one who did some work in the AHRC when it was in a previous guise, I can assure you that the process IS the punishment for all respondents and that the version of "law and justice" administered is complete anathema to any lawyer trained to respect the Rule of law. S18C is perverse in a number of respects, not the least the subjective [rather than objective] test, the low standard of proof required, the reversed onus of proof and the fact that the AHRC runs the "prosecution" with unlimited Commonwealth resources and the complainant gets to sit back and wait for "go away" money. Amendment is insufficient. The whole provision needs to be repealed; we have ample protection laws already administered by real courts, using real laws and abiding by the Rule of Law.
