LESSON 18.8 Inquiry: Does Australia need a bill of rights?
LEARNING INTENTION By the end of this lesson you should be able to: • summarise the arguments for and against Australia’s need for a bill of rights. • compare Australia to another western democracy.
Background In this inquiry you will investigate whether Australia needs a bill of rights.
Did you know? Many countries throughout the world have a bill of rights or charter of rights to protect the human rights and freedoms of their citizens. Australia is one of the few western democracies that does not have a bill of rights.
FIGURE1 The United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand are all countries with similar democratic systems to us that have a bill of rights or a charter of rights.
A bill of rights can be part of a country’s constitution, in which case it can be difficult to change; or it can be legislation passed by parliament, which can be changed by that parliament at any time, if most members of parliament support that change. Many people say that a constitutional bill of rights would better protect the rights of citizens, because it cannot be easily changed. Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory have all introduced legislated charters of rights.
TOPIC18 Laws and citizens 555
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