Page 4817 - Week 15 - Thursday, 8 December 1994
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BILL OF RIGHTS LEGISLATION
Exposure Draft and Paper
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General and Minister for Health) (3.39): Madam Speaker, for the information of members, I present an exposure draft of the Bill of Rights legislation, together with explanatory notes. I move:
That the Assembly takes note of the papers.
Madam Speaker, I table the ACT Bill of Rights Bill 1994. The idea that the rights of individuals must be protected is a powerful one which has endured for centuries. The idea that all men and women possess certain inalienable rights because of their humanity dates back to ancient Greece. Some of the earliest protection for individual rights is set out in the Magna Carta of 1215. These ideas have persisted and continue to influence the world. They were behind the American Revolution, after which Thomas Jefferson declared, "We hold these truths to be self-evident - that all men are created equal". They were incorporated into the American Constitution with its Bill of Rights and they were behind the American civil rights movement and the women's movement. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is one of the foundation documents of the United Nations. These ideas were behind the fall of the Berlin Wall and the recent remarkable events in South Africa.
But people cannot enforce their rights if they do not know what they are; courts cannot respect the rights of individuals if they have no means to do so; and governments cannot respect those rights without the agreement of the people as to which rights are most important. A Bill of Rights for the ACT would provide a clear and accessible statement of rights which could easily be read and understood. It would provide standards for the Government and for members of the Assembly about the fundamental rights of people in the ACT. It would provide clear guidelines for the police and the courts, as well as for people who are arrested and charged, of their rights and responsibilities. It would give members of the community the ability to have the law interpreted consistently with their rights.
The Bill of Rights Bill that I am tabling today is a draft Bill. It will be released to the public so that further consultation can be undertaken. This Bill was drawn up after six months of consulting with the public, which included talking to community groups and schools and a public seminar in May of this year. This Bill that you see today is not in its final form. That form will be determined by the outcome of the next six months of public consultation. My department will send out copies of this draft Bill to all interested members of the ACT community and to academics and human rights experts around Australia. There will also be public meetings to allow everyone a forum in which to express their views. Those views will be given serious consideration by the Government. The Bill, as it is drafted, will apply to the whole of the ACT Government - the Legislative Assembly, the ACT Executive, the judges of the Supreme Court, and the ACT Government Service. It states that every person in this jurisdiction has the following rights: Freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of expression; freedom of peaceful assembly; freedom of association; a number of democratic rights; life, liberty and security; freedom from torture and cruel punishment; and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.
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