The Australian Constitution

A Bill of Rights is an article included in a nation’s Constitution that outlines the human rights of the citizens. In the 1890s Australia’s founding fathers decided not to include a Bill of Rights, as it was believed that our laws and lawmakers would protect our basic human rights.

Most of the principles in the Australian Constitution are derived from the British and US constitutions . The British constitution relies on the principle of a sovereign elected parliament. Our Federal Commonwealth was to be formed under the Crown and the executive arm would sit in parliament. The biggest difference in the Australian Constitution was that there would be no charter of Human Rights. During the constitutional conventions in the lead up to federation, Mr Richard O’Connor advocated the idea of a Bill of Rights, however, the proposal failed, yielding 19 ‘no’ votes and 23 ‘yes’ votes . Since federation, there have been a number of attempts to introduce a charter of Human Rights in some form. In both 1929 and 1959, official inquiries into the Constitution rejected the notion, and two referendums, in 1942 and 1988, proposing the introduction of a Bill of Rights, were both rejected. This plays to the idea that, as a nation, we have a general attitude of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” when it comes to politics. There have also being two major attempts made in federal parliament to introduce a Bill of Rights in the form of a non-constitutional statute. In 1973, Attorney-General Lionel Murphy introduced his proposal for a new statute. However, his Bill proved to be very controversial, lapsing in the Senate. Then in 1983, Attorney-General Gareth Evans introduced a similar Bill, but it too lapsed in the Senate.

Although history suggests that ...

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...ble as rights can be adjusted to accommodate a changing society. It could also be said that a Bill of Rights would have no real affect on what happens in our society. For example, “Joseph Stalin’s 1936 constitution was eloquent on rights, but he murdered 20 million Soviet citizens.”

Australia has gone 113 years without a Bill of Rights, made possible by the quality of statute law and case law made over the past century. It is simply not necessary to have human rights expressly written in our Constitution, as our lawmakers are there to ensure that these basic rights are protected through the statutes they pass through parliament. So it really comes down to the level of trust we have in our elected representatives. Also, the level of vulnerability that a Bill of Rights leaves us in can potentially be very dangerous, as it is dependent on intended interpretation.