Wednesday, December 03, 2008



About bloody time

Australia is notable as the only democratic nation not to have a bill of rights. Not any more. The Labour government is planning to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by beginning public consultation on a bill of rights for Australia, along the lines of our own Bill of Rights Act. While weak, as international legislation goes, such legislation will still have a dramatic effect on Australian laws around terrorism, sedition, immigration, and the regulation of protest around public events. And given how downright totalitarian those laws are, that can only be a good thing.