Media Release

August 5 2009

Rights of Australians not up to international standards

Australia does not have a formal Charter or Bill of Rights A UniSA Professor will call for an end to rhetoric and the implementation of a formal list of fundamental rights and freedoms within the Australian constitutional framework at free public presentation this coming Tuesday (August 11).

Unlike the United States and the United Kingdom, Australia does not have a formal Charter or Bill of Rights that protects basic rights like the right to life and freedom from arbitrary detention, and by which we can measure the actions of our federal government.

Associate Professor Wendy Lacey, a public law specialist from the School of Law, will contend that the current situation does not meet international obligations.

“There has been a strong call by lawyers and human rights organisations for a national human rights Act, further to the state versions that have been put in place in the ACT and Victoria,” she says.

“In the sixty years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted internationally, Australia has signed almost all of the international human rights treaties, but has failed to give proper protection of those rights in our domestic law.

“With few constitutional rights and freedoms, federal parliament has almost unlimited power to remove basic human rights, and no formal obligation to consider human rights when making new laws and policies.”

Prof Lacey says that attempts to draft comprehensive human rights legislation are often road blocked by an influential minority who are concerned that such legislation would change Australia’s political system.

“It raises very complex constitutional issues that have the potential to change the way government, parliament and the courts interact,” she says. “However, the claim that power would thereby be shifted from the parliament to the courts is misleading - a Human Rights Act cannot limit the constitutional powers of the parliament.”

Such notions form the basis of major objections to a national charter, but Prof Lacey says that there are alternatives to a model in which the involvement of the courts is a central feature.

“We might consider both a tribunal and a human rights ombudsman, each of which could operate alongside a re-invigorated Australian Human Rights Commission,” she says.

Prof Lacey says that the recent National Consultation on Human Rights makes this a timely opportunity to discuss community expectations of human rights and their protection.

“Whatever outcomes emerge from the Consultation, it’s possible that they will fall short of the expectations of many. However, now is the time to discuss every option for closing the gap between rhetoric and reality.”

The presentation is the fourth in the Gift of Knowledge series, part of UniSA’s drive to give the community access to valuable knowledge on key local issues.

Event details:
Beyond the Legalese and Rhetoric: improving human rights protection in Australia.
Tuesday August 11 2009
6:00pm start
Bradley Forum, Level 5, Hawke Building, UniSA City West Campus
To register visit unisa.edu.au/giftofknowledge