Advocating the pursuit of rights

In his book, The Statute of Liberty How Australians can take back their rights, he claims he wiled away a wet Sunday afternoon designing an Act to declare the rights and freedoms of the people and to make better provision for liberty in Australia.

He writes: “Although we talk today with some pride of the freedoms we enjoy and the liberties we value, and a government website tells new citizens that they have rights ‘shared to some extent by all liberal democracies, adapted to Australia’s unique setting’, we have never taken the opportunity to set them down in writing in any covenant, by which those in power solemnly promise the people that they will not restrict them.”

As a result, his 30 suggestions include: Freedom From Slavery, Prohibition On Torture, Right To Life, Freedom From Compulsion, Right To Be Set At Liberty, Rights On Arrest, The Open Justice Principle, Right To Trial By Jury, The Right To Fair Trial, No Punishment Without Law, Freedom Of Movement, Freedom Of Expression And The Right To Know, Right To Privacy, Freedom Of Thought, Conscience And Religion, Right To Own Property, Right To Work, Right To Wellbeing, Right To Education, The Right To Democracy, Rights Of Parliamentary Representatives, Right To Effective Justice, Prohibition Of Discrimination, Rights Of Children, Rights Of Disabled People, Right To A Pristine And Healthy Environment, Derogation In Time Of Emergency, Special Rights Of Indigenous People, Duties Of Australians And Procedural Provisions, ie, rights entail responsibility to obey the law.

It jogs the mind, doesn’t it, to realise that the things we thought we could take for granted, we can’t. And, as he said, there are always those bloody minded bureaucrats about.