Professor Gillian Triggs made an impassioned call for the Rule of Law at the 2015 Human Rights Dinner
[Edited extract from public address]I am honored to be a patron of Justice Connect that has so successfully aligned probono lawyers with clients to provide legal advice and services for migrants, the homeless and older Australians.
As an international lawyer, I am impressed by the work of the Human Rights Law Center that places human rights law at the heart of their advocacy. I congratulate both organizations for their work and am proud to be part of a profession that accepts its responsibility to promote a just Australia under the rule of law.
Tonight, I would like to speak to you about the vital role our parliaments play, whether State, Territory or Federal, in protecting our ancient democratic liberties and rights.
I believe that the question –“what are the proper limits on the power of Parliament?”- remains a live one for contemporary Australian democracy. Over the last 15 years or so, the major political parties have agreed with each other to pass laws that threaten some of the most fundamental rights and freedoms that we have inherited from our common law tradition. For, over the last decade, particularly since the attack in 2001 on the twin towers in America, Australian parliaments have passed scores of laws that infringe our democratic freedoms of speech, association and movement, the right to a fair trial and the prohibition on arbitrary detention. These new laws undermine a healthy, robust democracy, especially if they grant discretionary powers to the executive government that are not subject to judicial scrutiny.
What then are the safeguards of democratic liberties if parliament itself is compliant and complicit in expanding the powers of the executive to the detriment of the judiciary and ultimately of all Australian citizens?
What are the options for democracy when both major parties, in government and opposition, agree upon laws that violate fundamental freedoms?