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December 11, 2008
The Australian's response to the movement to a national charter human rights is pretty negative. It says that supports human rights as a cornerstone of our national life, However, Australia doesn't need it or want a charter of right. The argument is that human rights are:
best protected by democracy and the rule of law. As Jesuit lawyer Frank Brennan and his panel set about consulting Australians about human rights policies and laws, the weight of evidence against a bill or charter of rights is compelling. Paradoxically, it would be more likely to undermine democracy and personal liberty than enhance them, at vast expense, as lawyers enjoyed not a picnic, but a banquet. A week ago, The Australian pointed out that those clamouring for a charter of rights have been unable to explain how the community would benefit by stripping power from elected politicians and handing it to unelected judges. Since then, the arguments advanced by proponents of a bill or charter have been unconvincing.
The position conservatives defend is the supremacy of Parliament which, to all intents and purposes means executive dominance. The position the conservatives attack is a countering of that power through the legal system so as to give some substance to the checks and balances on political power.
The conservatives cover this with fog. Thus Cardinal Pell,
The push for a charter of rights springs from a suspicion of majority rule, a preference for judicial decision-making on fundamental questions, the imperatives of the particular social and political agenda that a charter of rights serves, and the elitism of privileged reformers."
Majority rule pulls a cover over executive dominance whilst elitism covers over the liberal concern for individual liberty against executive dominance. Therefore it is bad to have checks and balances on "majority rule"
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It is a sad day when the Aristotelian grandeur of "supremacy of parliament" (polis) reduces along such an arid trajectory to exclusively and narrowly, "executive dominance" of the sort we saw evolve under Howardism.