7.  Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission

(1)     There is established by this Act a Commission by the name of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission

(2)     The Commission:

(a)     is a body corporate, with perpetual succession;

(b)     shall have a common seal;

(c)     may acquire, hold and dispose of real and personal property; and

(d)     may sue and be sued in its corporate name.

(3)     All courts, judges and persons acting judicially shall take judicial notice of the imprint of the common seal of the Commission appearing on a document and shall presume that the document was duly sealed.

8.  Constitution of Commission

(1)     The Commission shall consist of:

(a)     a President; and

(b)     a Human Rights Commissioner; and

(c)     the Race Discrimination Commissioner; and

(ca) the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner; and

(d)     the Sex Discrimination Commissioner; and

(e)     the Privacy Commissioner; and

(f)      the Disability Discrimination Commissioner.

(2)     The members must act in a way that promotes the collegiate nature of the Commission.

(6) The functions of the Commission under paragraphs 11(1)(aa), 11(1)(1b), 11(1)(f) and 31(b) and the functions of the Commission under paragraphs 11(1)(p) and 31(k), to the extent that they relate to the performance of the first mentioned functions, shall be performed by the President, and a reference in this Act to the Commission or to a member of the Commission shall, in relation to the performance of any of those functions, be read as a reference to the President.

(7) The performance of the functions or the exercise of the powers of the Commission is not affected by reason only of a vacancy in the office of the President, Human Rights Commissioner, Race Discrimination Commissioner, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Privacy Commissioner or Disability Discrimination Commissioner.

8A.  The President

(1)     The President is to be appointed by the Governor-General as a full-time member or a part-time member.

(2)     The President is the senior member of the Commission.

(3)     The President is responsible for managing the administrative affairs of the Commission.

8B.  The Human Rights Commissioner

(1)     The Human Rights Commissioner is to be appointed by the Governor-General as a full-time member.

(2)     A person is not qualified to be appointed as the Human Rights Commissioner unless the Governor-General is satisfied that the person has appropriate qualifications, knowledge or experience.

9.  Arrangement for appointment of the holder of a judicial office of a State

(1)     The Governor-General may, for the purpose of appointing to the Commission a person who is the holder of a judicial office of a State, enter into such arrangement with the Governor of that State as is necessary to secure that person’s services.

(2)     An arrangement under subsection (1) may provide for the Commonwealth to reimburse a State with respect to the services of the person to whom the arrangement relates.

10.  Appointment of Judge as member not to affect tenure etc.

(1)     The appointment of the holder of a judicial office as a member, or service by the holder of a judicial office as a member, does not affect the person’s tenure of that judicial office or the person’s rank, title, status, precedence, salary, annual or other allowances or other rights or privileges as the holder of that judicial office and, for all purposes, the person’s service as a member shall be taken to be service as the holder of that judicial office.

(2)     In this section, judicial office means:

(a)     an office of Judge of a court created by the Parliament; or

(b)     an office the holder of which has, by virtue of holding that office, the same status as a Judge of a court created by the Parliament.