Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will be very brief. I also rise to speak on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights: human rights scrutiny report, report 9 of 2017. My very brief remarks are going to be with reference to an item within that, the Australian Bill of Rights Bill 2017, which I note has been sponsored by Mr Andrew Wilkie MP from the other place. The idea of whether or not we should be enshrining Australian rights within a bill of rights is a debate we continually have every couple of years. Many people have different views on this debate, and these views have been very well canvassed in many places.

I think it's very timely, however, that we have a brief observation regarding this, because when we talk about human rights, when we talk about a bill of rights, we invariably end up talking about issues like freedom of speech. We end up talking about what types of freedoms are and aren't there. In the inner west suburbs of my home town of Sydney, the area where I live, around Burwood and Strathfield, in the past few days hateful material has been letterboxed and handed out, attacking the Labor Party in what would be deemed a clear breach of electoral guidelines. These are the types of guidelines I worry a bill of rights would seek to nullify. There is a flier doing the rounds of my street at the moment, and it tries to be powerful at the start, with these words: 'Do not vote Labor'—