Our fragile liberty

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Robert Carr, acting to close off avenues of escape for persecuted Tamils from Sri Lanka has entered into the most unholy of alliances with the corrupt Rajapaksa regime to disrupt the boat traffic in asylum seekers. Perhaps we should not be surprised as this is the self-regarding politician who mounted strange arguments against an Australian Bill of Rights, for reasons difficult to understand.

Unless we can protect the weakest among us and those seeking our protection we cannot claim to be a state which has a strong notion of civil liberties.

The fact remains, however, that Australia does not have a Bill of Rights and while it does not transgressions against the fundamental rights of individuals are made easier than if such a bill were in existence; the lives of Assange, Habib, Hicks, Haneef and Zygier might have had different outcomes. Once informed, an organisation like ASIO might be compelled to inform relevant agencies of the detention of an Australian irrespective of real or perceived security concerns.

To secure and maintain the civil liberties inherited under our adoption of the Westminster system of government and the basic tenets of English law, Australians must rely on the court system interpreting a tangled web of now often contradictory laws that back our limited and fragile civil liberties.