What Australia MUST do : Part V
What Australia MUST do to advance: Part V
Part I: Here // Part II: Here // Part III: Here// Part IV: Here
Part five of my “Six things Australia MUST do in order to Advance” is something that I not only have mentioned on this blog, but also my first foray into blogging on my old blogger account.
So far I have mentioned media standards, health care standards, promoting equality through the legalisation of same sex marriage and setting a standard for an unbiased secular government.
These issues are important, but it is hard to define what we expect without an all encompassing document to clearly define who and what we are as a nation.
I am often critical of the blasé, laissez-faire attitude of the general Australian public when it comes to defining who we are.
“Fair go”, “She’ll be right”, “No worries” are all catch cries of our supposed culture but really don’t amount to anything, especially when she is and will not be right, we don’t practice “fair go” and there are plenty of worries to be had.
For all its faults that were painfully exposed from 2000 – 2008, the United States is a beacon of Western civilisation and at its core is the most beautiful thing we have created. Again, it has been perverted, spat on and twisted into something unrecognisable from its original state but the core values and goals of the United States is something to behold and replicate.
If the entire imaginary world of economics were to fail tomorrow, if a complete meltdown of industry, information and money happened, the USA has something to fall back on. They have the core values and “rules” on which the country was first built. The values of freedom, liberty and responsibilities is (mostly) agreed upon and taught to the children from a young age. The constitution and bill of rights is a launching point for a free and prosperous society.
I didn’t even know Australia HAD a constitution and what it contained until after I graduated from High School and researched it on my own accord.
Just recently the Prime Minister ruled out introducing a Bill of Rights or a Human Rights charter. Why? Well… because. Apparently we don’t need one, even though John Howard and, supposedly, Kevin Rudd support a Bill of Rights to be drawn up for Iraq. Maybe we need to be invaded on false pretences to be given a legally binding charter of rights given to every Australian citizen.
It’s not like we have had any threats to what we, as a nation, believe to be our rights. It’s not like the Government have planned on filtering and censoring the internet based on the recommendations of a arbitrary and outdated “independent” board. It’s not like there has been a clusterfuck of legal questions surrounding the supposed influx of refugees and it’s not like freedom of religion and speech is not protected under law!
Oh hang on, that’s right! We aren’t guaranteed freedom of speech, the right to protest, the right to choose our own religion, the Government IS introducing a mandatory filter and the IS a lot of legal questions surrounding refugees and their rights…
As of this moment, the rights, like freedom of expression, are implied rights. Not bound by law, and can be taken away at anytime. After September 11th, George W Bush introduced the Patriot act, allowing the authorities to bypass due process if one is suspected of being a threat to national security. In Australia, we also had our own version, allowing police to hold one indefinitely without charge, to search premises without a warrant and to keep a list of suspect internet activity, with the forced co-operation of your ISP.
After knife attacks “spiked” early this year, Victorian police set up blitzes where they would randomly search anyone they wished at certain train stations, without just cause.
Just like the USA, if we had a bill of rights or a charter of some sort, these types of laws and violations would be a contradiction of what has been set out to be our rights and the laws would be quashed, and Police action reprimanded.
It is imperative for this nation to define what who we are through legally binding and celebrated document. A list of rights afforded to every citizen, and the responsibilities put onto every citizen. It is imperative that it is taught to our children to help, along with parental input, shape their morality, so when they hear about a woman being stoned to death for having the audacity to show her face in public, they instinctively know how wrong that is without second thought.
What Australia MUST do to advance: Part V: Establish a Bill of Rights
-db
