Dear Human Rights Commission: I was interested to read the media release on the Cherkupalli case (see link following). However, I was surprised to read that the Commissioner, Ms Catherine Branson, felt the need to recommend, among other things, that the Immigration Department "ensure its staff receive training in the importance of protecting the right to liberty".
Is it necessary that officials be trained in the importance of protecting liberty? If it is, then the Department, and perhaps our society as a whole, has truly come to a sad state. Americans declared this right to be a truth that is "self-evident". If this means anything, then it surely means that training should be unnecessary. But perhaps experience in Australia is revealing that what is self-evident in the United States remains clouded in mystery and confusion for us Australians. What a melancholy thought!
http://www.hreoc.gov.au/about/media/media_releases/2012/38_12.html
– Letter by a CLA member to the Australian Human Rights Commission