Bill of rights lessons from the UK

So the Commission has advocated a "rebranding". Any future Bill of Rights should adopt a similar mechanism to the declaration of incompatibility. The rights protected should be virtually the same as the ECHR. None of which is surprising to those familiar with the HRA.

Some see the real problem as being the "E" in ECHR. The British are increasingly euro-skeptic. Perhaps that is all there is to it. But I suspect the real issue is that UK citizens feel they were protected previously. They see judgments they don't agree with; they read misleading press reports; and they conclude that the HRA is bad law.

The reality is that the culture for rights was not properly prepared. Blair saw the HRA as an inevitable progression. The people do not agree.

In 2011 Australia adopted the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act. As human rights legislation goes it is almost unique. It does not create any judicially enforceable rights. It empowers a Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (PJCHR) to examine legislation and report on its compatibility with international rights standards. It compels those introducing legislation to formally declare whether it is or is not compatible with those human rights standards.

It is a modest piece of legislation. It is benign almost to the point of being pointless. If this legislation was a color it would beige. And yet… there is some evidence, some signs that it may be creating a rights culture in parliament at least.

The PJCHR is robustly enforcing the declarations of compatibility, demanding explanations and not simply accepting statements for ministers without justification. Civil servants are said to be more aware of their international obligations when drafting legislation.

The Australian legislation is far from perfect. In the end it is powerless – incompatible legislation can be passed, the only sanction is a moment of political discomfort when someone has to say that they know the legislation is incompatible with human rights standards and affectively assert that they don't care.

But unlike the UK – where pollies line up to complain about the human rights system – the Australian legislation might lay real foundations. To create a culture of rights. A sustainable culture of rights. That really would bring rights home.