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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 02 Hansard (Tuesday, 2 March 2004) . . Page.. 505 ..

failures in this. I am thinking more recently of the problem of child abuse. No doubt that matter will be looked at in some detail, but it does indicate a depressing event when Big Brother purports to be able to look after everybody and then fails so miserably.

I am sure this Big Brother approach has now reached its zenith with this issue of a bill of rights. We are now going to have the rights of everybody protected, although perhaps not as much as some members would like; I think Ms Tucker was lamenting that earlier. Certainly, the intention is to protect the rights of people under two of the international covenants: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. These two covenants set out to cover self-determination, work and just conditions of work, protection of the family, the right to health—that will be an interesting one for this government, will it not?—the right to education, the right to life, the right not to be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment—

At 5 pm, in accordance with standing order 34, the debate was interrupted. The motion for the adjournment of the Assembly having been put and negatived, the debate was resumed.

MR CORNWELL: It goes on with the right to a fair trial, the right to privacy—there is an interesting one—the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of movement, the right to vote, equality before the law and non-discrimination. All of these are remarkably commendable; they are in fact motherhood statements. And, if it is the wish of people, they are unenforceable. Fortunately in this country we do not have that situation. We do not have people attempting to deny the right to liberty, the right to a fair trial, the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of movement et cetera; we do not have that problem here. But, no matter how lofty the motions, these rights are unenforceable if people decide not to allow them to prevail.

The unenforceability of those rights within those United Nations conventions applies equally to this bill, according to the report of the ACT Bill of Rights Consultative Committee. One of the points states that a bill of rights would implement locally the international statements of rights to which Australia is committed. These were arguments for the bill of rights. That is okay and fine, though I must admit that, at one of the very poorly-attended meetings—25 people were there in fact—the majority were against any bill of rights. A couple of points were raised that I thought were interesting. One of them—would minorities really be better off?—I think I have answered already, but I will come back to that shortly. Another was: how do you change a right which is no longer acceptable or relevant if you incorporate a bill of rights? Are we going to have these things coming back here all the time for amendment? And, if we are to implement these points, how do we implement one that I did not mention but I will mention now, and that relates to the right of ethnic, religious or linguistic communities to enjoy their own culture. Perhaps somebody far more knowledgeable than I, my colleague Mr Stefaniak, might help me. How do we get over the right of ethnic, religious or linguistic communities to enjoy their own culture in this country if they practise female circumcision? It is also true that in Mali, which is in West Africa, there is a Tabaski feast which is held by Muslims in which a sheep is slaughtered by each family. Will this also be allowed in Australia if people from Mali wish to practise their right of ethnic, religious or linguistic community to enjoy their own culture? I do not know where you draw the line on these things. What I am saying, however, is; is this just another sop,

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