Mixed responses have greeted release of the National Human Rights Consultation Committee report, but the government is already watering down expectations of a Human Rights Act, saying that “enhanced education” and “improved parliamentary scrutiny” would provide protections. The committee’s chairman, Frank Brennan, has disappointed some people.
YOUR OPINION: Brennan’s rights report is all wrong
I watched on television the broadcast of the National Press Club address by Frank Brennan, chairman of the National Human Rights Consultation Committee, and I am sorely disappointed in what he had to say.
He made two significant points, that he said were incorporated in the report from the committee.
- Human rights should not be legally binding in Australia; and
- Any human rights legislation enacted at the federal level should not apply to the states.
Thus, the outcome of the National Human Rights Consultation Committee is recommendations that no guaranteed human rights should exist in Australia, and no effective improvement to the current lack of human rights in Australia should be made.
I am sorely disappointed in Frank Brennan and the “National Human Rights Consultation Committee”.
– Bret Busby, CLA member, Armadale, WA