Everyone needs a safety net at some point in their lives (2009)

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Everyone needs a safety net at some point in their lives

Author: Catherine Branson, President, Australian Human Rights Commission

Publication: The Age, Page 15 (Wed 17 Jun 2009)

A human rights act would ensure people are protected at all times.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has this week lodged its submission with the National Human Rights Consultation, recommending that Australia implements a human rights act.

Opponents of such a bill have said that it would be undemocratic, that it would give too much power to courts and that the commission itself wants to become an annexe to the High Court of Australia.

None of these charges is true. What a human rights act would do is make sure that the Australian Government respects human rights in its dealings with ordinary Australians. It would be the cornerstone of a more effective and relevant system of protections - and for the development of a culture of respect for human rights in this country.

This means protections for all of us - for anyone with a grandparent in a nursing home, for the one in four of us who lives with disability, for people living in rural and remote Australia who often have poor access to essential services, for foreign students who study at our universities.

It will offer more protection to the 100,000-plus Australians who sleep on the streets, in shopfront alcoves or under railway overpasses each night.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has talked to people in Australia about their human rights concerns for more than 20 years. Overwhelmingly, we hear that Australians care about their fundamental human rights, that they value freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of association. They do not want to be discriminated against and they don't want others in their community to experience discrimination. Above all, Australians want to be treated with respect by government authorities.

Taxi passengers only have to look at a cab window to see what rights they have while in the cab, yet nowhere in Australian law can people find a clear statement of their rights as Australian citizens and residents.

It should not be controversial for our Federal Government to implement within Australia the human rights agreements that we have voluntarily agreed to uphold internationally.

A human rights act would not be undemocratic. It would be an ordinary act passed by the people we elected to serve and protect our interests.

Such an act would also not allow courts to invalidate laws, but might require that Parliament be notified, perhaps by the attorney-general, if a court found a law to be inconsistent with a human right that Parliament had agreed should be protected by the act. But the final decision on how to deal with the law in question would remain with the elected representatives in Parliament.

If Parliament decided not to amend a law that was found to be inconsistent with a protected human right, the Australian people would be able to judge its reasons and give their verdict - at the ballot box.

What can be more democratic than that?

The Australian Human Rights Commission's role might be to notify Parliament, through the attorney-general, if a court found a law to be inconsistent with human rights. This would not make the commission a court or anything like a court. Its function would simply be to draw the attorney-general's attention to a judicial decision. There is no constitutional impediment to this model.

Australia's strong traditions of liberal democracy, an independent judiciary and a robust media have been sufficient to protect the rights and freedoms of most people in Australia, most of the time.

But not everyone in Australia can be confident that they will be protected in respect of all aspects of their lives, all of the time. We need a system of government that ensures that all people have a safety net to protect their fundamental human rights.

Catherine Branson is president of the Australian Human Rights Commission.