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Media Release

October 8 2007

10th Annual Hawke Lecture: Consensus and dissent in Australia

The Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG, High Court of AustraliaThe United States has had a constitutional bill of rights for more than two centuries and in recent times other countries have moved to protect human rights by incorporating basic rights in their national constitutions and local law. This includes the United Kingdom, which enacted a statute of rights that has been in operation for seven years.

Isn’t it surprising then that Australians have not yet reached, or even really attempted, a consensus on a national statute of rights?

In the 10th Annual Hawke Lecture, Consensus and dissent in Australia, the Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG, High Court of Australia, argues that the time has come for Australians to reach consensus on their rights and freedoms.

Justice Kirby believes that reaching consensus with others is, in many cases, a critical tool in building and developing the institutions of society and that “the time has come in Australia to strive for a new consensus on the rights and freedoms that belong to all Australians.”

“I certainly do not advocate a statute of rights in Australia because it would gain us credit overseas or secure more attention to our judicial opinions. I agree that these are irrelevancies. Nor is the fact that Australia is now the only advanced western country without such laws alone enough to persuade me to adopt them,” Justice Kirby says.

He says we should be forging “a national consensus about the basic rights that we promise to uphold and that we expect our elected lawmakers to respect” and that it should be “an agreement about fundamentals that we place above politics”.

Justice Kirby says agreement on fundamental rights through consensus should be forged but not forced. “On such questions, our institutions need strong concurrences but also sometimes strong dissenting voices,” he says.

A democratic society needs both consensus and dissent. Knowing when each is appropriate is the challenge, according to Justice Kirby, who has the highest dissenting rate in the history of the High Court, even outflanking the dissents of Justice Isaacs, Justice Evatt and Justice Murphy.

In a country of the “fair go all round”, Justice Kirby puts out the challenge for injustice and inequality to be cured.

This lecture marks a decade of Annual Hawke Lectures in which the discussion of rights has figured significantly. Hawke Centre Director, Elizabeth Ho commented: “The Annual Hawke Lecture has always served the important purpose of alerting Australians to significant matters that can either advance or hinder us as a nation. Justice Kirby’s position is being offered at an important time, as Australians begin to question how well we compare, in terms of human rights, with other advanced democracies and to discover that we are well behind. He is effectively challenging Australians to remedy this, and it is a challenge that deserves our serious attention and action.”

10th Annual Hawke Lecture
Presented by the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre
Consensus and dissent in Australia
The Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG
High Court of Australia
5.15pm for 5.30pm start
Wednesday October 10 2007
Adelaide Town Hall
This lecture is now FULLY BOOKED.

The 2007 Annual Hawke Lecture coincides with the opening of the Hawke Building, including the Kerry Packer Civic Gallery and Hawke library, at the University’s City West campus on North Terrace, Adelaide on October 11 2007.

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