Patrick Dodson (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Reconciliation) Share this | Hansard source

This private senator's bill, the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Amendment (Australian Freedoms) Bill 2019, was introduced by Senator Bernardi on 23 July 2019. Labor always welcomes debate on important questions about how to better protect human rights in our nation and in the global community, and that's why we have a Human Rights Committee that scrutinises bills that come to the parliament. I have a different view to Senator Paterson on this matter, being a current member of that committee, and I find the work of that committee to be quite constructive and positive for our democracy. However, Labor will not be supporting this bill, for a number of reasons that I'll briefly outline this morning.

This bill proposes an amendment to the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 by elevating a series of particular rights, defined in the bill as Australian freedoms, and these 'Australian freedoms' would be enshrined as paramount over other human rights. In his second reading speech, Senator Bernardi declared:

As intended by our liberal-democratic predecessors, these prescribed, unalienable freedoms will be given priority over other human rights. Where competition or conflict occurs, these Australian freedoms will take priority …

Senator Bernardi appears to have taken it upon himself to use this bill to define, for all Australians, which human rights are important and which ones can be relegated to a secondary tier. This determination of the value of fundamental rights for all Australians is from a senator who led, until it was deregistered in June this year, a political party with one representative in parliament out of 227 members. I should add that the one MP representing Senator Bernardi's Australian Conservatives political party—Senator Bernardi himself—was elected to this place as a member of the Liberal Party. To be fair, his Australian Conservatives party did field candidates to increase their federal representation at the election in May. The fact that the Australian people chose not to elect a single member of the Australian Conservatives to either house of the Australian parliament is something that I think must be taken into account in assessing the extent to which the radical proposals in this bill can be seen as representative of the will of the Australian people.

Senator Bernardi's second reading speech on his bill is instructive. In that speech the senator spoke at some length about his usual fears and objections and loathing, including section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which for over 20 years has protected Australians and Australia from the divisive effects of racial hate speech. Yet, despite the support for section 18C from across the Australian community and the mere fact that two previous attempts to gut this provision failed, the federal protections against racial hate speech in section 18 are precisely the kinds of protections that would be undermined should this bill pass. The Australian freedoms which Senator Bernardi claims are being threatened by human rights and by protections against racial hate speech like section 18C and which would be enshrined as paramount in this bill are an eclectic collection. While Senator Bernardi cites the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as a source of these Australian freedoms, some do not appear in that treaty. Rather, some of the paramount freedoms Senator Bernardi is seeking to import to Australia and elevate above existing rights appear to be inspired by rights associated with the hard Right of politics in the United States. Given that Australia has its own values, and that those values are not the same as those of the conservatives and religious Right of the United States, it isn't too hard to see why the Australian Conservatives political party established by Senator Bernardi was so comprehensively rejected by the Australian people at the ballot box just this year.

For example, one of the paramount Australian freedoms this bill would protect is the right to protect the family. This sounds like an important right, but it isn't clear that he is referring to the right of respect for the family, contained in articles 17 and 23 of the covenant. If he is, then I wonder if he is aware of the extensive jurisprudence around the right, some of which relates directly to family law and the need for laws to operate in the best interests of the child. But I expect the use of the word 'protection' in place of the word 'respect' is not an accident on Senator Bernardi's part. Perhaps he is seeking to import to Australia, through this bill, US-style rights to bear arms or perhaps he's seeking to import, through this bill, the US-style 'stand your ground' legal defence for killing intruders even when the taking of life isn't in any way necessary. If that's the case, how would that sit with the right to life, which is also included as a paramount Australian freedom in this bill? It simply isn't clear.

I would also add that the highly idiosyncratic approach to the protection of human rights that would be created by this bill includes a blanket protection of freedom of religion. If enacted, this would appear to cut across the work now being done by the government and the opposition regarding new laws in relation to religious discrimination in this country. Labor believes that the issue of religious discrimination is a very important topic. More generally Labor holds that all Australians should be free to go about their lives free from discrimination. Laws that prohibit discrimination are fundamentally laws about fairness, and the Labor Party is the architect of the antidiscrimination law framework in this country. I note that a number of concerns have been expressed about the government's exposure draft bill on religious discrimination, by religious and non-religious Australians alike. Labor believes it is incumbent on members of this place to listen to those concerns. Labor is continuing to consult widely with the Australian community about these concerns and we will carefully review the government's bill on religious discrimination in light of our consultations when the bill is introduced. If passed, this bill from Senator Bernardi would cut across this very important consultation with the Australian people about religious discrimination. For this, and a host of other reasons, Labor will not support this bill.