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Bill of Rights

This guide contains links to Internet resources and documents relating to a Bill of Rights or Charter of Rights at the Commonwealth, State and Territory level. Some comparative material on overseas law is also included. See also the Parliamentary Library's Internet guide to

Civil and Human Rights law

 

Commonwealth (federal)

There is no federal Bill of Rights legislation. Documents listed below outline the attempts to introduce a Bill of Rights. See also information on implied rights in the Constitution in the Library's Constitutional Law Internet Resources page.

The Australian Labor Party, elected in 2007, has in its 2007 National Platform a commitment to establish an inquiry and consultation process to gauge the need and support for statutory protection of rights. In November 2008, the Government established a National Human Rights Consultation Committee (chaired by Father Frank Brennan) to undertake the consultation and report by 30 September 2009. The Committee recommended that Australia adopt a federal Human Rights Act. In April 2010, the Government responded to the NHRCC report by issuing its Australia's Human Rights Framework document and related press releases, which includes proposals to establish by legislation a Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights which would scrutinise legislation compliance with human rights treaties and a requirement that all new legislation introduced or tabled in Parliament be accompanied by a compatibility statement on human rights. A federal Human Rights Act is not intended at this stage.

Related legislation

  • Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011
    Establishes the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights to examine bills, legislative instruments and acts for compliance with international human rights instruments and requires new bills and legislative instruments to be accompanied by a human rights statement of compatibility

Attempts at a federal Bill of Rights

Sites

Arguments for and against a Bill of Rights

  • 2006 A Human Rights Act for Australia? (The Law Report, ABC Radio National, 22/8/06)
    Pros and cons for human rights legislation
  • 2000 Professor George Williams summarised the arguments for and against in his publication A Bill of Rights for Australia, University of NSW Press, Sydney, 2000, p. 35:

FOR

Australian law does not protect fundamental freedoms

A Bill of Rights would give power of action to Australians who are otherwise powerless

A Bill of Rights would bring Australia into line with the rest of the world

A Bill of Rights would enhance Australian democracy by protecting the rights of minorities

A Bill of Rights would put rights above politics and arbitrary governmental action

A Bill of Rights would improve government policy making and administrative decision making

A Bill of Rights would serve an important educative function

A Bill of Rights would promote tolerance and understanding in the community

AGAINST

Rights are already well protected in Australia

The High Court is already protecting rights through its interpretation of the Constitution and the common law

Rights listed in the Constitution or Acts actually make little or no difference in protecting rights

The political system itself is the best protection of rights in Australia

A Bill of Rights would actually restrict rights, that is, to define a right is to limit it

A Bill of Rights would be undemocratic by giving unelected judges the power to override the judgment of Parliament

A Bill of Rights would politicise the judiciary

A Bill of Rights would be very expensive given the amount of litigation it would generate

A Bill of Rights would be alien to our tradition of Parliamentary sovereignty

A Bill of Rights would protect rights (e.g. the right to bear arms) which might not be so important to future generations
Arguments For a Bill of Rights
Arguments Against a Bill of Rights

General material

For further items, search the Parlinfo database and select Library for journal articles, books and library publications, and Media for newspaper articles and media releases. Although full text searchable, for copyright reasons some material on Parlinfo may be available only to those using the Parliament House computer network.

Australian Capital Territory - the first jurisdiction to implement a statutory charter of rights

  • Human Rights Commission
    Administers the Human Rights Act and provides details of case law under the Act
  • Bill of Rights Consultative Committee
    A non-Parliamentary Committee was established in 2002, chaired by Professor Hilary Charlesworth, and in 2003 recommended that a statutory Bill of Rights (Human Rights Act) be introduced
  • Text of the Human Rights Act 2004 which implemented a Bill of Rights in the A.C.T.
  • Forum: Australia's First Bill of Rights
    Papers from a conference on the ACT Bill of Rights held in 2004
  • The Canberra Law Review (vol 8) provided an overview on the first year of operation of the Human Rights Act (available to Parliamentary staff only)
  • ACT Human Rights Act Research Project
    A joint project of the ANU and the ACT Government. The project will document the impact of the ACT Human Rights Act 2004 over its first five years and will test the predictions of supporters and critics of bills of rights against the ACT experience. The results of the research will assist in the five year review of the ACT Human Rights Act.

New South Wales

Northern Territory

  • In 1995 the Legislative Assembly Sessional Committee on Constitutional Development issued Discussion Paper no 8, 'A Northern Territory Bill of Rights?'. In its report, the Committee did not recommend that a Bill of Rights be included in the draft constitution, but left the way open for a non entrenched statutory charter at a later stage (Appendix 9: Options for dealing with rights)
  • Since 2006 the NT Statehood Steering Committee has been seeking views on a Bill of Rights

Queensland

South Australia

  • Human Rights Bill 2004 Private Members Bill introduced by Sandra Kanck (Democrats) in the Legislative Council. The Bill was not passed and Ms Kanck retired from the Council in 2008

Tasmania

  • In 2006 the Tasmanian Attorney-General engaged the Law Reform Institute to investigate suitable options for human rights protections. The Institute reported in October 2007 recommending a Bill of Rights, although a Government spokesman was reported as saying in December 2008 that State legislation would proceed only if the Commonwealth failed to introduce national legislation

Victoria - the second jurisdiction to implement a statutory charter of rights

Western Australia

  • In 2007 the report of the Committee for a proposed Human Rights Act recommended that a Bill of Rights be introduced along the lines of a draft Human Rights Act released in May 2007.When releasing the report the WA Attorney General Jim McGinty stated that he preferred a national rather than a State law. In September 2008 the Government changed

Public opinion polls

Overseas legislation includes:

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