The Statute of Liberty – Geoffrey Robertson

This is a lucky country when it comes to individual rights. A persuasive lawyer puts the case for even greater protection. - Michael Sexton SMH 7 March 2009

The Australian people emerged from a polyglot mixture of nationalities and other races: a kind of human minestrone. Not only a race, but a race apart, thanks to the kindness of distance. What distinctive moral vision have we attained from the struggles and sacrifices of our forebears? If we are to preserve the part of our heritage to do with freedom, we must write down the entitlement of every citizen in a way that politicians and public servants will respect. That means they must be turned into law. If they are not capable of legal enforcement then they are not ‘rights’, they are empty promises.

The Australian Attorney General is expected to announce a commission to examine the case for an Australian Bill of Rights in December 2008, on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It will be next year’s big controversy and a huge political decision for the Rudd government.

This short book by Geoffrey Robertson QC is sure to become the primer for this debate. He puts the case for an Australian Bill of Rights cogently and dramatically, proving with evidence from other countries how a statute of liberty helps ordinary citizens and improves standards of governance and public services. He exposes the lies and urban myths the Australian people face from opponents of the bill, and shows how the charter he has drafted reflects the history and real contemporary values of Australians.

This is a provocative argument for change, which explains that real democracy only exists if politicians give the courts power to defend citizens against abuses of their human rights by governments and public servants.

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Related posts:

1. Sea of Dangers: Captain Cook and His Rivals – Geoffrey Blainey
2. Liberty in the Age of Terror: A Defence of Civil Liberties and Enlightenment Values – A C Grayling
3. A Retelling Of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales – Peter Ackroyd