Page 893 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 25 July 1989
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Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has amongst its functions the power to examine enactments to see if they are inconsistent with, or contrary to, any human right and enactments and treaties that Australia, as a country with international standing, supports.
Two of the articles of the international covenant on civil and political rights are well known to many people, and the right of peaceful assembly. Of course, that was shortened by the BWIU to "the right of assembly". The right, recognised in international law and supported by this Government and in particular the Australian Labor Party in its federal sphere, is the right of peaceful assembly. Of course, everyone has the right of freedom of association. That includes the provisions of this Bill, which gives the right to picket areas and all those other things, within peaceful constraints. That is the international standard. It is the standard accepted by the Australian Labor Party at its federal level and it is the standard that will be policed by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
If the commission finds that this proposed Bill is inconsistent with those rights, it can come in very hard on this Government and it can ensure that those rights are preserved and corrected. So there are guarantees and back-up mechanisms to ensure that we do not go off the rails in this Assembly, even though we sometimes pass legislation with alacrity.
Mr Speaker, one other issue that became apparent to me and concerned me - and I am speaking as a person, as a member of the committee, not as the leader of the Residents Rally - was the extent of inconsistency in our current legislation in the ACT. Just a few minutes ago I pulled out one of the volumes that we have of local legislation; I presume it is still law. I noticed that, amongst other things, in the Public Baths and Public Bathing Ordinance - I direct this comment to my friend Mr Berry who likes to spend some time in the bath - it is provided that "a person shall not loiter in a public bathing convenience unless he has a reasonable excuse for so doing". It seems that that only applies to one gender. Nevertheless, that provides for a penalty for loitering in a bath. Mr Speaker, the fact is that I can point out to you the many inconsistencies in legislation. I am sure we are not going to see demonstrations about the invasions of civil rights to do with loitering in a public bath.
Mr Speaker, the fact is that the Federal Government proposed to put forward an Australian bill of rights in 1985 and, as quickly, withdrew it. There are many arguments about bills of rights, whether they do not make rights simply confined, prescriptive, and you cannot get out of those and create new rights, but I will not enter that debate. Article 10 of that proposed Australian bill of rights was that every person have the right of peaceful assembly. Australia was going to adopt its obligations in
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