Page 3589 - Week 12 - Thursday, 20 September 1990
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putting our position on record. The Liberal Party does endorse the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is an important milestone in achieving a consensus across our planet on protecting those rights - rights which are not universally acknowledged and upheld.
In the Attorney-General's statement made some time ago there were two qualifications. I want to make one brief reference to one of those qualifications. I must say we find it regrettable that there is not more express reference made to the right of parents to choose the type of education that a child receives. It is a matter of some slight concern. I note that there are express statements of that right in other documents published by the United Nations, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and another document published by the United Nations referring to the rights of the child - that particular freedom is articulated there.
However, that is not a reason to reject or qualify one's overall support for this document; it is a worthwhile development and I urge members of the Assembly to support it warmly.
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (4.42), in reply: Mr Speaker, Australia signed the convention on 22 August 1990, as the house has already observed. Next week the State, Territory and Commonwealth Attorneys meet in Hobart. I can inform the house that the question of ratification is likely to be raised then by the Commonwealth. I can further inform the house that, in the event that the views of the ACT are sought, we will again indicate that we would support early ratification of the convention.
Mr Speaker, it is fitting, of course, that the signing on 22 August took place during National Child Protection Week, which is fundamentally what this convention is about. I would just like to inform Mr Stevenson - through you, Mr Speaker - that there are over 80 international instruments which apply implicitly to children by virtue of their status as human beings. They make either specific or explicit reference to the child. Many are binding on those states which have signed them as conventions or covenants. But Mr Stevenson's suggestion that the relevant Federal Minister willy-nilly can sign into domestic law and declare international conventions and treaties by Gazette notice is not correct. I am not going to engage in debate on that. I do ask Mr Stevenson to seek competent legal advice in the future before he makes those suggestions, which may concern members of the public.
I draw Mr Stevenson's attention to section 47 of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act to which, I believe, he was referring. It says:
The Minister may, after consulting the appropriate Minister of each State, by writing, declare an international instrument, being -
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