We the undersigned are opposed to a Charter of Rights which would allow judges to determine if laws are incompatible with human rights. We support the protection of human rights, especially those of the most vulnerable in our society, but we wish to see elected representatives of the people, not unelected judges, remain responsible for the protection of human rights. We note that this system has already made Australia one of the freest countries in the world with a human rights record the envy of people all over the world. We call upon the Australian Parliament to:
a. reject a Charter of Rights orb. not enact a Charter without a referendum.
To Sign this Petition on the Make A Stand website
MPs must ask what they can do for their country
Peter Costello, SMH.com.au | When I first walked into the House of Representatives in 1990 I noticed there was a glass case by the door. Displayed inside it was an extract from an article written by Robert Menzies for The New York Times in 1948.
The glass case is no longer there. I asked after it last year and was told it had been moved during building works now long completed. The Clerk of the House started a search to find it which led to some back corner of the labyrinthine Parliament House. The members no longer walk past it. They no longer read the words. Maybe Menzies is considered passé, but the words are not: "I believe that politics is the most important and responsible civil activity to which a man [and we should interpose woman] may devote his character, his talents and his energy … We must aim at a condition of affairs in which we shall no longer reserve the dignified name of statesman for a Churchill or a Roosevelt, but extend it to lesser men who give honourable and patriotic service in public affairs."
I always liked those words - honourable and patriotic service. Most of the Members who come to Canberra come with that intention. A few get sidetracked by the benefits. Some spend their time in endless scheming and plotting against their colleagues. But the bulk render their service to varying degrees of ability.
Detention values to be enshrined in law
25/06 ALP Media | The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, today introduced a Bill to enshrine in law measures that prohibit the detention of children in detention centres and ensure people don't languish in detention for years on end.
The Migration Amendment (Immigration Detention Reform) Bill 2009 will give legislative effect to the Rudd Government's New Directions in Detention policies announced in July last year.
Parliament set to pass bill to abolish detention debts for refugees
25/06 Australian Christian Lobby | In a compassionate move which looks set to remove a significant burden from refugees, legislation is being debated in Federal Parliament to abolish charges levied on asylum seekers held in detention.
The policy of charging refugees for the cost of their own detention has reportedly been in place for 17 years and was originally introduced by former Keating government immigration minister Gerry Hand..
Questions to Minister:
23 June: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Primary Industries, representing the Minister for Community Services. Is the Minister aware of recent figures from the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics that show a dramatic increase of 159 per cent in the number of women charged with domestic violence abuse? Is the Minister aware that some battered men are hiding in shame, fearful of being ridiculed and afraid of restraining their wives in fear of being charged with assault and domestic violence? In particular, is the Minister aware that these offences range from hot liquids being poured over the victims to being attacked with knives while sleeping and being cut or burned? Given the social stigma attached to male victims of domestic violence, what programs will be established to provide both social and legal services for men and their children who are victims of domestic abuse, to encourage male victims to report domestic abuse to the authorities, and to educate women and the wider community about male victims of domestic violence?
RUDD, FULL OF UNFULFILLED PROMISES
19/06 Tony Abbott's blog |"... At the half way mark, it’s important to look behind the spin and focus on what the government has actually done or failed to do. Mr Rudd has not taken over public hospitals as he said he would if their performance did not improve. He hasn’t built the 260 childcare centres he promised or the 50 GP super-clinics he promised. On the other hand, he has means tested the Baby Bonus which he promised not to do and he wants to means test the Private Health Insurance Rebate which he also promised not to do.
He’s signed Kyoto, he’s signed the apology and, at least metaphorically, he’s signed millions of cheques delivering to voters money that they’ll soon enough have to pay back. In fact, like a typical bureaucrat, signing things turns out to be what Mr Rudd does best. He’s certainly not very good at making anything else actually happen, mostly because he insists on working with his party mates in the state governments...."
NSW: Questions to Ministers
18/06 Gordon Moyes | My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Health. Is the Minister aware of the report released yesterday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare which found that Australia does not measure up to other OECD countries on infant and under 5 mortality rates, and teenage birth rates? Is the Minister aware that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 2 to 3 times as likely as other Australian children to die, be of low birth weight and have dental decay, and that they are 5 times as likely to be born to teenage mothers? In particular, is the Minister aware that A Picture of Australias Children 2009 Report showed that children living in remote areas had higher death rates, higher rates of neural tube defects, lower rates of cancer survival, and worse dental decay? Given that the report found that Australia is lagging on childrens health, what policies will be implemented to ensure that New South Wales is on par with other OECD countries in maintaining childrens health in Aboriginal and remote communities?
Federal parliament to investigate homelessness
Australian Christian Lobby | What principles should underpin the provision of services to Australians who are homeless or at risk of homelessness? What is the role of legislation in improving the quality of services for people in this situation?
These are just two of the questions being asked by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth, which recently commenced its Inquiry into homelessness legislation.
Launching the inquiry, Committee Chair Annette Ellis said: “This is an excellent opportunity for people and interested organisations to comment on what should be included in new homelessness legislation. The Supported Accommodation Assistance Act 1994 sets out principles that have guided government responses to homelessness since 1995. “The 2008 white paper on homelessness by the current government, The Road Home, noted, however, that the legislation should be strengthened. The Committee will consult widely in order to advise government of the principles and service standards that should be included in such new legislation.”
The deadline for submissions is Friday 14 August 2009. More information, including inquiry terms of reference and details on how to prepare a submission can be found here. To read The Road Home report please click here.
Queensland: Paedophile sentencing laws fail victims again
18/06 Lawrence Springborg MP, LNP | The outrageous decision to allow a convicted paedophile to walk free from court despite molesting a 10 year-old boy is further evidence Labor’s justice system has failed. LNP justice spokesman Lawrence Springborg said Bligh Labor’s soft sentencing laws for paedophiles and sex offenders was again completely out of step with community standards
... "The paedophile has walked ….while this young boy and his family will have to live with the damage for the rest of their lives."Under Labor’s soft sentencing, paedophiles and sex offenders are treated better than the victims and their families …they’re being better protected.
Equal rights for same-sex couples
18/06 ALP Media Release | Same-sex and opposite-sex couples and their children will have the same rights in a range of matters from 1 July 2009, the Minister for Human Services, Chris Bowen MP said today. "The Australian Government has amended federal laws to remove discrimination against people in same-sex relationships," Mr Bowen said.
"These wide-ranging reforms will recognise all couples, regardless of the sexual orientation or gender of a partner, in matters such as social security, family assistance and Medicare."
Gap MP Ian Hunter pleads to be allowed to marry his partner
17/06 Adelaide Now | A LABOR MP has made an impassioned plea to marry the man he loves, accusing the Rudd Government of standing in his way.
Labor MLC Ian Hunter today told parliament it was wrong for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to continue to impose his personal beliefs on the rest of the community and disallow gay marriage. Mr Hunter has been openly gay since he was elected to parliament and been in a relationship with his partner Leith for almost 20 years.
Silencing Parachurch Ministries (and Other Christian Activities)
Bill Muehlenberg | Many of you would appreciate the ministry of Focus on the Family. James Dobson’s organisation has helped millions of families with its practical, faith-friendly resources. In the same way, Teen Challenge is another Christian organisation which has been helpful to so many drug and alcohol victims... What do these four organisations have in common? All are what are known as parachurch organisation. As the term implies, these are Christian ministries that come along side of the church, helping it in performing tasks it may not be able to do itself. They provide specialised ministries to help assist the church in carrying out its work.
And another thing they all have in common is that they might all be forced out of business, if restrictive options proposed in a discussion paper go through
The week running the country came second
Australian Christian Lobby | Running the country took a back seat in Federal Parliament this week as both sides of politics locked in a political death roll over the now (in)famous Godwin Grech’s evidence to a Senate Inquiry.
The political furore sparked by his explosive evidence that the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan may have misled Parliament has dominated the news and the time of the Parliament all week.
The issue badly rebounded on the Opposition with revelations that an email purported to prove the case against the Prime Minister was found to be fake and amid media speculation that Mr Grech may have been a ‘mole’ within Treasury for the Liberal Party.
The behaviour of both sides of politics this week has amplified our adversarial political culture and highlighted the monumental distraction that the imperative of destroying political opponents is to the affairs of State.
COSTELLO A LOSS TO NATION
16/06 Tony Abbott Article |Paradoxically, Peter Costello leaving the parliament is his country’s loss but his party’s gain. It’s a definite loss to our country because there aren’t too many of his native talent and proven capacity lining up to serve. Every day in the parliament must have been an agony to Costello as lesser men traduced his policies while exploiting the surplus he had produced. His departure is the Liberal Party’s gain because it will end the inevitable leadership speculation that might otherwise have benefited a Labor government that is starting to deserve to lose.
Yesterday, Costello paid a well merited tribute to the family that has supported him through 20 years of public life. Of course, he owes his family more of his time, attention and remunerative potential – every politician does. Still, given the comparisons that would inevitably have been made between Costello and anyone else leading it, it was the party as much as his family that he put first yesterday.
He would have been more than human not to have taken hard the Howard government’s defeat. For almost 12 years, as deputy leader of the Liberal Party and federal treasurer, Costello was indisputably the second most powerful person in the country after the prime minister. For much of that time, knowing that no government lasts forever, he was understandably impatient to inherit the top job that he rightly thought his talents and track record entitled him to. Even those, like me, who never thought that the former government would have been stronger without John Howard than with him regarded Costello as self-evidently the only worthy successor.
Some have accused Costello of lacking the ticker to challenge. No one who was on the receiving end of a Costello critique or who watched him in parliament where he was the most effective hunter-killer of his generation could seriously have thought him weak. Political prizes should not go the most unscrupulous and self-interested. It was to Costello’s credit that he was not prepared to wreck the former government in order to lead it. It’s also to his credit that he has decided not to remain on the backbench and inadvertently fuel accusations that the Liberals weren’t fielding their strongest team despite the arguments put to him that he should stay as “insurance” in case the current leadership was found wanting. He sacrificed his final chance to become prime minister in order to strengthen Malcolm Turnbull’s prospects.
NSW: Questions to Ministers
16/06 Gordon Moyes | My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Primary Industries, on behalf of the Minister for Community Services. Is the Minister aware of the "Known Territory" report by St Vincent de Paul which found that charity services in New South Wales regional cities and towns have experienced a threefold increase in demand for help from homeless people in the past two years? Is the Minister aware that the surge in homeless people numbers has occurred in Katoomba, Nowra, Wollongong and Newcastle, places that were attractive to homeless people as they tried to escape the pressures of poverty in the city? Is the Minister aware that many people who might in the past have found accommodation in caravan parks are now becoming homeless because many of these caravan parks have been sold for housing developments? In particular, is the Minister aware that an increasing number of homeless people are now sleeping permanently in their cars? Given that this problem will continue to escalate in the future, what policies will be implemented to ensure that homeless people in regional New South Wales receive adequate shelter? .
The ‘Hormone Factory’ – your action requested
Australian Christian Lobby Newsletter | Running the country took a back seat in Federal Parliament this week as both sides of politics locked in a political death roll over the now (in)famous Godwin Grech’s evidence to a Senate Inquiry.
The political furore sparked by his explosive evidence that the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan may have misled Parliament has dominated the news and the time of the Parliament all week.
The issue badly rebounded on the Opposition with revelations that an email purported to prove the case against the Prime Minister was found to be fake and amid media speculation that Mr Grech may have been a ‘mole’ within Treasury for the Liberal Party.
The behaviour of both sides of politics this week has amplified our adversarial political culture and highlighted the monumental distraction that the imperative of destroying political opponents is to the affairs of State.
Queensland: Budget condemns Queensland to decade of debt
16/06 LNP Media Release | State Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek said Government debt had blown out from $64 billion to $85.5 billion leaving an average Queensland household of four people facing a debt of $78,000."Queenslanders are today seeing the real reasons why the Premier dashed to the polls six months early," he said.
... "The Bligh Labor Government will have to pay a $14 million interest bill on their debt every day before they even start paying for police officers, teachers, nurses and ambulance officers," he said.
Charter submissions close Monday as lawyers split
11/06 Australian Christian Lobby | The push for a national charter of rights had a welcome setback on two fronts in the past week, with a split emerging in the legal profession’s support for the charter and former NSW Premier Bob Carr writing a timely opinion piece declaring that “the push for an Australian charter of rights is exhausted”.
According to media reports, the Queensland Law Society has broken ranks with the Law Council of Australia's "resolute" support for a charter, saying that there is no consensus among Queensland’s solicitors about whether a charter is desirable.
Queensland Chief Justice Paul de Jersey also recently criticised the push for a charter of rights because of concerns that it would erode public confidence in the judiciary. Please click here for details.
Meanwhile in an opinion piece in last Friday’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers, former NSW Premier Bob Carr argued that “more judicial review, or judge-made law, is the last thing Australia needs” and therefore nobody should be distressed that the push for an Australian charter of rights is exhausted.
Mr Carr said that the latest model of a charter being put forward by advocates looking to overcome constitutional difficulties is “politically indigestible”. Please click here to read his article.
While ACL agrees with Mr Carr that the charter push should by rights have ended, unfortunately advocates are pressing on and it remains vital that we make our opposition to the charter known.
Submissions to the Human Rights Consultation Committee close next Monday, June 15 and if you haven’t written one yet please go to our ‘Charter rights no wrongs’ campaign at www.makeastand.org.au. The site contains information to help you make a quick submission. If you have not already done so, you can also sign the petition to the Australian Senate. More than 8,000 people have now done so, but more signatures are needed.
Please also forward the www.makeastand.org.au link to all of your friends and ask them to lodge a short submission and sign the petition.
Schools infrastructure fund under fire
13/06 Justine Ferrari, The Australian | THE federal government's $14.7 billion school infrastructure program has been attacked as a "fake education revolution" that delivers funds without assessing whether they are being used to help students' learning. Leading education analysts described the spending as a lost opportunity overseen by a minister too busy to focus properly on education, with its primary aim not education, but politics and the next election.
Ken Wiltshire, a former Labor policy adviser and Australian representative to the UN education body UNESCO, said the Building the Education Revolution program, designed to stimulate the economy, was poorly planned, with schools not even asked how their project would improve the education of their students.
So, whose rights reign supreme?
Bob Carr, The Age | MORE judicial review is the last thing Australia needs. So nobody should be distressed that the push for an Australian Charter of Rights is now exhausted. A charter, according to its supporters, is a list of rights and allows the High Court to make findings of "incompatibility" between these and Commonwealth legislation
But the constitutional difficulty of designing a charter emerged when two former High Court judges, Sir Gerard Brennan and Michael McHugh, said that requiring the High Court to play an advisory role to Parliament is outside the court's power. The advocates of a charter are self-proclaimed experts on the constitution, so this was close to a death blow to something they had worked on for years.
Hence the scramble to come up with another version at the April 22 meeting convened by the Australian Human Rights Commission. This new model may be constitutional. McHugh thinks it is. But it is politically indigestible. In it, the Human Rights Commission boldly claims for itself a role in forcing the reshaping of federal laws. To quote its website: "The commission would be empowered, at the request of a party to the proceeding or of its own motion, to notify the Attorney-General of a finding of inconsistency."
Rules bent as 'facelift' funds spent on laptops
13/06 Pia Akerman and Natasha Bita, The Australian | THE Rudd government has bent its own rules for school spending by letting 15 Adelaide schools use their share of "facelift funding" to buy computers instead. The exemption was given to Adelaide schools due to be closed within 18 months, which had received grants of up to $150,000 for "school refurbishment".
Charter submissions close Monday as lawyers split
11/06 Australian Christian Lobby | Some good news from Tasmania, where a bill to legalise euthanasia looks likely to be sent to a committee of review.
Deputy Premier Lara Giddings announced yesterday that she would move to have Greens’ Leader, Nick McKim’s euthanasia legislation examined by a cross-party committee of both Houses of Parliament before being debated later this year.
Tasmania: Joint Committee Should Consider Euthanasia Bill
10/06 Tasmanian Gov Media Release | Deputy Premier Lara Giddings today said she would move to have Greens Leader, Nick McKim’s euthanasia legislation examined by a cross-party committee of both Houses of Parliament before being debated later this year. Ms Giddings said the move was a reasonable compromise between Mr McKim’s desire to have the Bill debated soon and the need for more detailed examination of the issues by members of both houses of parliament with community input.
“I will move that the Dying with Dignity Bill 2009, together with any incidental matters, be referred to the Joint Standing Committee on Community Development for investigation and reporting by 2 October 2009,” Ms Giddings said.
What is Wrong with a Bill of Rights
Bill Muehlenberg | The question is, do we need such a Charter or Bill of Rights (BoR)? We believe the answer is no. Here are ten reasons why.
One. We already have all major rights fully protected in Australia. The right to vote, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and so on are already carefully protected rights. Australia has, through common law, various institutions and customs, and the three arms of government, a wide variety of rights already securely in place. The burden of proof must lie with those seeking change to show that major rights violations are taking place.
Alcopops tax hike to become law
Australian Christian Lobby | The much-debated alcopops tax looks likely to finally pass Federal Parliament this week, following the Opposition’s decision to reverse its position and now support the tax, saying that Australia’s economic position has changed. Please click here for details.
On Monday night the legislation passed through the House of Representatives even though four Coalition MPs still voted against it and the bill is expected to easily pass the Senate this time around.
The bill, which will ensure that the 70 per cent excise hike on alcopops stays in place, was originally defeated in the Senate in March after the Coalition joined forces with Family First Senator Steve Fielding to oppose it. At the time, Steve Fielding blocked the tax because the Government refused to budge on limiting alcohol advertising in sport during children’s viewing time.
Australian Drug Foundation, John Rogerson, says he is encouraged by the Opposition’s change of heart, telling the ABC that: "I think the challenge now for the Government is to bring in a comprehensive set of taxes around alcohol, certainly based around the amount of harm caused by the drinks with the highest amounts of alcohol."
ACL also welcomes the passing of a measure which at least represents a small step forward in helping to curb Australia’s binge drinking scourge, although in keeping with many others we would also like to see far more done. At the same time we recognise that there have been credible questions raised about whether this legislation has been more about generating tax revenue than comprehensively addressing binge drinking.
Charter of Rights - time to get your submission in!
05/06 Saltshakers | It’s time to get your submission or letter written for the Consultation on Human Rights…. That’s the Inquiry looking into whether Australia should have a Bill or a Charter of Rights.
Submissions close on 15 June.
Click here for our Campaign page on this issue – with information about the key questions being asked, links to the Consultation homepage and key articles.
In your submission you can be detailed or brief. You might suggest – in your own words - some of the following (more ideas in the articles on our Campaign page):
Our rights are protected by law.
Some rights are expressly included in the Constitution already.
Parliaments should be the body making laws. Courts should interpret and apply them. We don’t want courts to have extra power, assessing laws according to some list of ‘rights’.
The constitutional problems of a Charter of Rights (as outlined below) mean that a Charter of Rights is unacceptable.
BLOG WITH TONY ABBOTT FROM 2.30PM 12 JUNE 2009
11/06 Tony Abbott's blog |"... Rudd Government ministers are so “on message” that they risk making fools of themselves. Every question on the economy draws the same response: the government is dealing with the worst economic crisis in 70 years but thanks to the stimulus package hundreds of thousands of people have jobs who would otherwise be unemployed.
When asked how it could be our worst crisis when it’s not yet a technical recession or what might happen if the recession worsens and there’s no money left for more stimulus packages, ministers repeat the mantra or demand to know what the opposition would do..."
WA ‘living wills’ law lacks safeguards
Australian Christian Lobby Newsletter | The living wills legislation that passed a year ago in Western Australia will be implemented in three months according to WA Health Minister, Kim Hames.
ACL believes that living wills can be beneficial, but that the current legislation does not contain enough safeguards and may put vulnerable patients at risk.
ACL West Australian Director Michelle Pearse (pictured) told ABC TV News yesterday that living wills should come into force only when a natural death is expected within a certain timeframe.“There should be a review period every two years in case a person's personal beliefs may change and also in cases of medical advances that may not have been taken into account when the person was creating their living will," she said. Please click here to read the media report.
ACL also believes that a living will should be created with the advice of a medical practitioner, because people who are not terminally ill will not know what the end of their life will look like and such decisions need to be made with as much information and clarity as possible.
Kevin Rudd Urged to tackle Extremists
08/06 Mark Dodd, The Australian | ISLAMIC scholars are urging a rethink on the fight against homegrown extremism as the Rudd government stands accused of failing to match its tough talk on counter-terrorism with action.The Rudd government should urgently boost funding for high-quality Islamic studies courses, moderate Muslim community groups, and police liaison teams to counter home-grown extremism, a leading Australian Islamic expert says.
Such measures offered the best hope of blunting the potential radicalisation of hundreds of Muslim students who come to Australia to study each year.... Attorney-General Robert McClelland warned in March that a terrorist attack in Australia had "as much prospect of emanating from disgruntled and alienated Australian youth as it does from an overseas terrorist organisation".
Nothing Right about a Bill of Wrongs
Bill Muehlenberg | ...A number of social and political commentators have weighed into the debate. Here I offer the thoughts of four recent writers who have expressed concern about such a Charter. Piers Akerman asks why we need to even consider this: “Cynics might say that this distraction should keep the chattering classes too busy to notice rising levels of unemployment or the growing list of broken election promises beginning with computers for every student and the restoration of the Murray-Darling river system, but that would be a disservice to the True Believers. To them, the lack of a national bill of rights is sufficient argument in itself to call for a document to be immediately prepared and foisted on the long-suffering public, not withstanding the reality that Australia’s extraordinary record of stable government and outstanding level of public civility, despite the appalling behaviour routinely displayed in the state, territory and federal parliaments.”
Cairns case no case for liberalising abortion
Australian Christian Lobby | Today’s court appearance in Cairns by a 19-year old woman and her boyfriend for procuring a miscarriage using a dangerous drug is being used to pressure the Bligh Government to decriminalise abortion.
... Abortion advocate Leslie Cannold’s describing of the Leach case as a prosecution for undertaking a “medical procedure” is clearly wrong.
You're a moron, Costello tells Swan
03/06 SMH.com.au | Former treasurer Peter Costello has fired up in parliament, labelling his successor Wayne Swan a "moron".And for good measure, Mr Costello told Prime Minister Kevin Rudd he was "nasty" man and "a dope".Mr Costello, who normally keeps a low profile in question time, perked up at government remarks on recent economic history. "You're a moron," he heckled Mr Swan
Internet filter: $44.5m and no goal in sight
02/06 SMH.com.au | The Rudd Government's internet censorship policy will cost about $90,000 per blocked web address to implement and the Government has admitted it has not developed any criteria to determine whether trials of the scheme are a success.
The Opposition, Greens and online users' lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia are concerned the lack of success criteria is a sign the policy itself has no clear goals and is instead being dictated by what the technology will allow.
Queensland: Labor’s paedophile sentencing laws a joke
01/06 Lawrence Springborg MP, LNP | The Bligh Government’s sentencing laws for serious sex offenders and paedophiles have again been exposed as weak and ineffective, the State Opposition said today.
LNP justice spokesman Lawrence Springborg said the weakness of Labor’s sex offender laws were again highlighted through a Question on Notice with the Government admitting in the past three years, only 10 of the 59 offenders ‘found guilty’ of indecent treatment of a child under 12 was jailed for more then three years.
"I totally agree with Monash University child welfare expert Professor Goddard who says our sentencing laws do not reflect the seriousness of the crime or the damage done to victims and their families," Mr Springborg said. "We need a major shack up of child abuse sentencing laws. The Premier and the Attorney-General need to take heed of experts who are telling us our child abuse sentencing laws are soft compared with the rest of the world.
Rights bill won't pay
Paul Kelly, The Australian | THE battle lines over an Australian bill of rights are being drawn with a polarisation that will disturb the Rudd Government, which made the tactical decision to defer the republic campaign and give priority to the rights debate.
What do former Australian chief of army Peter Cosgrove, former governor-general Ninian Stephen and original chairwoman of the Northern Territory Emergency Task Force Sue Gordon have in common? They are the Australians who launched, wrote the foreword and the afterword to the new book Don't Leave Us with the Bill, the case against the bill of rights.
In his launch speech this week Cosgrove said he believed the issue was "possibly more important" than the republic. He warned that the Australian public was unimpressed with "me-tooism", being lectured that it must have a bill of rights when such laws "have made not a jot of difference to crushing inequities" in other societies.
"Enduring laws ought not to be a fashion statement," Cosgrove said on Monday when he declared: "Don't leave us with the bill."
Pledged opponents in this book are: Queensland Chief Justice Paul de Jersey; former High Court judge Ian Callinan; former solicitor-general David Bennett; former NSW judge and past president of the Australian Bar Association Ken Handley; historians John Hirst and Geoffrey Blainey; former chief of operations in Iraq Jim Molan; West Australian Attorney-General Christian Porter; University of Sydney professor of law Helen Irving; former Keating minister Gary Johns; the leader of the Catholic Church in Australia, George Pell; deputy president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry John Levi; Australian Christian Lobby head Jim Wallace; former PM John Howard; and shadow attorney-general George Brandis, among others.
Bill of rights is the wrong call
Bob Carr, The Age | IF Australians were asked whether they wanted non-elected judges to enjoy the final say on all public policy, it is pretty clear how they would vote. A modest increase in judicial review was proposed in 1988. Voters were asked only to endorse trial by jury, freedom of religion and fair terms for property acquired by government, by inserting these as rights in the constitution. The referendum lost in every state and territory by votes of up to 75 per cent. Now the federal Government has an inquiry into how rights can best be protected in Australia. The advocates of a bill of rights have watered down their proposal to a charter based on legislation and not added to the constitution, and which parliaments can in theory overrule.
This faces a bigger hurdle than mere public disdain: there is now close to a consensus that it would be unconstitutional. "How can anyone be opposed?" ask the frustrated enthusiasts who've tried to agitate for this issue. Well, to start with, a charter or a bill of rights guarantees nothing.
Britain abolished slavery in 1772 with a court decision based on the common law. The US, as late as 1857, confirmed slavery was valid, notwithstanding its constitutional Bill of Rights.
Indeed, America had a Bill of Rights for 150 years before black Americans in the south could vote. And they didn't get it through the Supreme Court; they got it because black Americans mobilised politically.
Joseph Stalin's 1936 constitution was eloquent on rights but he murdered 20 million Soviet citizens.
Keep power with the people
Archives: December 08 - Janet Albrectsen | ANALYSING calls for so-called reforms should always start with a few golden rules. Follow the money. And follow the power. This week both paths lead you straight to the legal profession and to the heartland of politically driven activists. Like pigs sniffing for truffles, lawyers can smell the enticing waft of money and power in the air as they push open new legal industries. For the activists, it’s about influence as they seek to move from the irrelevant fringe of political life to the centre of the action.
What's all the fuss about?
Australian Christian Lobby | Australia is one of the freest countries in the world. But freedoms we have taken for granted will be under immediate threat if a national Charter of Rights is introduced.
A Charter of Rights gives tools to those opposed to Christianity to erode our freedoms. For example, within months of the Victorian Charter of Rights being enacted, an inquiry was set up questioning the freedom of Christian schools and organisations to discriminate in favour of staff who shared their Christian ethos.
Who knows what a Federal Charter will unleash.
In other countries, charters or bills of rights have been used to achieve the aims of fringe groups who have failed to win support for their ideas through the normal democratic process.
A Charter of Rights will effectively transfer responsibility for our values on human rights from elected Parliamentarians to unelected judges. In other countries this has had disastrous consequences.
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MPs must ask what they can do for their country
Detention values to be enshrined in law
Parliament set to pass bill to abolish detention debts for refugees
RUDD, FULL OF UNFULFILLED PROMISES 
Queensland: Paedophile sentencing laws fail victims again
Silencing Parachurch Ministries (and Other Christian Activities) 
The ‘Hormone Factory’ – your action requested
So, whose rights reign supreme?
What do former Australian chief of army Peter Cosgrove, former governor-general Ninian Stephen and original chairwoman of the Northern Territory Emergency Task Force Sue Gordon have in common? They are the Australians who launched, wrote the foreword and the afterword to the new book Don't Leave Us with the Bill, the case against the bill of rights. 
Keep power with the people