Attorney-General Rob McClelland signalled the Australian Charter of Rights and Responsibilities debate was likely to begin mid-year when CLA met with him in March. At the same time, the pace of writing submissions and making representations is heating up as the Rudd Labor Government gets its legislative and cultural change program under way.
Other intiatives CLA is supporting include attempts to soften the repressive anti-terror laws as well as
clarifying how Parliament approves Australia’s military interventions and expenditures. Formal Democrat moves (as well as one from Liberal Petro Georgiou) on these issues follow CLA’s campaigning for them in 2007.
Other CLA initiatives reported on in this months newsletter are a formal request for the Joint
Standing Committee on Electoral Matters to fix an enormous anomaly in voting proportions in the Territories, and a project to support the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in its review of business rights and responsibilities.
Other highlights featured in this month’s CLArion include:
- Aussie woman faces execution in Vietnam;
- judge issues ultimatum over harsh detention;
- Australia lobbied to ensure rights are honoured;
- shopper tracking raises privacy concerns;
- move to create formal rights for children;
- ex-Lib appointed to head refugee committee;
- NSW Parliament criticised for ‘trespassing on rights’;
- ACT allows right to action in Human Rights Act:
- new CLA media spokesperson appointed;
- Aborigines strongly against NT intervention; and
- UK moves to adopt Australia’s electoral processes.
Previous CLArions (pdf files) are also available: