ABSTRACT
Queensland has played host to some of the world’s mega-sporting events (MSEs) over the last few years and has won the bid for the 2032 Summer Olympic Games. Protecting human rights while maintaining security and a safe environment at these events requires concerted attention. Queensland’s Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) (the HRA) has implications for the protection of human rights in Queensland during MSEs. This chapter explores whether the HRA can better protect human rights in future temporary event-based legislation which confers security powers for major events in Queensland and whether the HRA can produce a human rights–based approach to security enforcement by public entities (police) at future MSEs. A socio-legal analysis of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (building on Brisbane’s G20 Summit experience) shows that future event security legislation may prove resistant to human rights considerations under the HRA because of the legislature’s strong preventive justice and risk avoidance approach to security. However, the HRA may have practical impact in better protecting human rights through obligations placed on public entities, promoting police practices that enforce security at major events in a manner compatible with human rights.
