Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. It is indeed today the anniversary of 800 years ago when the Magna Carta, the great charter, first came into being. The authors of the Magna Carta were troublemakers. We celebrate the Magna Carta as the hallmark, the foundation, of our decent and civilised democracy, and the Magna Carta began as treason and subversion. There was a weak, high-taxing king—a king so bad that there has never been another to carry his name since. There were 25 fractious barons fearing the loss of their status, their feudal servants, even more money in taxes and wars which were being lost in regular monotony by their king. The barons brought with them a document. It was written on calf skin—no iPads or tablets in that time. It was in abbreviated Latin, with swan- and goose-feather quills dipped in ink made from crushed wasp eggs and oak-tree bark. This was not elaborate calligraphy with stylised capital letters or fancy illumination; it was a practical working document, a feudal log of claims 63 clauses long. Some of those have long faded into history, but others echo down the ages: the touchstones of our judicial system, protection from arbitrary or illegal imprisonment, the right to a speedy trial before a jury of one's peers. There was freedom of trade and commerce, the lifeblood of great trading nations. It talks about allowing widows to remarry—the first minimal recognition of the rights of women. It even had a single standard of weights and measures.

At the very heart of Magna Carta there was one idea in every word of the 63 clauses. It was the idea that, rather than settling the administration of a nation through conflict, through armies, through dictators and even through a benevolent monarchy, a group of words could explain to society how it is run. As Winston Churchill did indeed say, the Magna Carta represents the supreme law because it puts the rule of law above even the power of the monarch. It was a marvellous piece of writing. It inspired the revolutionaries of the American War of Independence. The Fifth and Sixth Amendments are practically directly taken from this document of 800 years ago. The French, in terms of their declaration of the rights of man, were inspired by this Magna Carta. Eleanor Roosevelt said of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that it was a Magna Carta for all humanity. And in Australia, on both sides of this parliament, we recognise the importance of it. Indeed, further away from here, the High Court, which interprets our Constitution which upholds our separation of powers, treats everyone equally under law inspired by the Magna Carta. None of these rights were given lightly. They are far easier to lose than to win. Indeed, today it is important to celebrate the ongoing contribution of this parliament to the role of liberty and freedom in our nation and in our democracy.

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