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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Wednesday, 23 June 2004) . . Page.. 2458 ..

This bill has been prepared on the necessary premise that with rights come responsibilities. Today I am tabling this private member’s bill—the Charter of Responsibilities Bill—to balance, as much as anything else, Mr Stanhope’s human rights act which, as members may be aware, comes into force on 1 July of this year. In a way it is somewhat sad that we have had to go down this path. There are other ways of looking at rights and responsibilities that have served us well as a community for many years—namely our conventions, our statute laws and the ever evolving changes, and the common law as well. I think those have served the ACT and Australia well. Nevertheless, if we are going to go down the path of having a human rights act, I think we also need a charter of responsibilities to complement it.

In tabling this bill I will also table, for the information of members, the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities dated 1 September 1997, which was proposed by the InterAction Council for the United Nations. It is one of a number of documents the United Nations has looked at. I think there is another draft in escrow as well. The United Nations who, of course, has to some extent over the years, pushed human rights—not so much legislation but declarations—has also seen the need for corresponding responsibilities. It recognises this by saying:

The inalienable rights and inherent dignity of everyone requires certain obligations to be followed and certain responsibilities to be accepted. Both the rule of law and human beings depend on the readiness of everyone to act justly. These rights cannot endure without the commitment to the responsibilities that come with them.

I seek leave to table the following paper:

A universal declaration of human responsibilities, dated 1 September 1997, prepared by the InterAction Council.

Leave granted.

MR STEFANIAK: If members want to have a look at that at some stage, I think they might find it somewhat identifying and helpful. These documents have been used to assist in drafting a charter of responsibilities. What does this particular act do? I will go through the salient details in relation to it. It has a preamble and the preamble is largely taken from the UN declarations. It is not as full as what is in the UN declarations, and it does not necessarily need to be. It basically stipulates the essential facts—that everyone is capable of making free and responsible choices and that the inalienable rights and inherent dignity of all human beings also require certain obligations to be followed and responsibilities to be accepted.

The rules of law and human rights depend on the readiness of everyone in our society to act justly. These rights simply cannot endure without the commitment to the responsibilities that go with them. Everyone is responsible, to the best of their knowledge and ability, for a better community—our community—which cannot be created or enforced by laws, prescriptions and conventions alone.

Those statements are not dissimilar, although they talk about responsibilities in the preamble and some of the statements in Mr Stanhope’s human rights legislation. Part 1 of this bill sets out what the bill is called. This bill, of course, will not commence on 1 July because we are not going to debate it until August. It will therefore commence on

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