National Human Rights Consultation Submission 

AGWW-7RBTZ6 

Name: Greg Byrne 

Submission Text: 

I am writing to you to make a submission on human rights.
 
In my view the most crucial issue is the right of the unborn child to life.
 
Any human rights document that does not enshrine that right would seem to
 
be not worth the paper it is written on.
 
In Victoria there is a “Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities” that
 
specifically allows an exception for abortion. The right of a woman to
 
choose overrides any right that the unborn child has to live.
 
Such a proposition makes a mockery of human rights and this so called
 
“Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities” has made Victoria a laughing
 
stock among serious scholars of human rights.
 
All the more so in that it came just a couple of years before the most
 
draconian abortion bill in history apart from China’s “one child” policy.
 
No doubt other states will follow Victoria’s lead in this respect so that
 
unless this document is going to override such legislation it will be of no
 
relevance whatever.
 
I realise that abortion rights have majority support within the Australian
 
community. However if one says that one can judge a society by the way in
 
which it treats its most defenceless members then one cannot judge the
 
Australia community very favourably. Australia has become a country in
 
which the law of the jungle prevails.
 
At the end of the day human rights are human rights and that means human
 
rights for all especially the weak and defenceless. Powerful people can
 
always protect their own rights with physical force or expensive lawyers.
 
The unborn child has neither.
 
Many years ago a well-known Labor politician Senator Pat Kennelly said that
 
“It’s good to have the logic but it’s better to have the numbers”. Whatever
 
one might think of such a proposition it is a description of reality in
 
contemporary politics.
 
If one is dealing with critical rights of members of the community then to
 
decide those rights by a majority vote in a legislature without reference
 
to basic right or wrong criteria is asking for trouble.
 
Whether we like it or not any legislation passed by a parliament reflects
 
“the numbers” not “right or wrong”.
 
Finally Australians voted against a “Bill of Rights” in a referendum in
 
1988. I think to recommit a similar proposition via a statute when
 
something similar has been decisively rejected ignores the views of average
 
Australians.
 
http://www.convictcreations.com/history/republic.htm
 
Therefore let me suggest two things:
 

(a) That any legislation be subject to serious scrutiny as to its
 
intrinsic moral worth in terms of how it upholds the rights of all
 
Australians born and unborn and
 
(b) That the legislation be put to a referendum before becoming law and
 
become part of the Australian Constitution.
 
This is the proper way to introduce such legislation and is in keeping with
 
Australia’s democratic traditions.
 

 
Yours truly
 

 
Greg Byrne
 
9 Lambourne Ave
 
ROWVILLE VIC 3178
 
9759 7529 
Page 1 of 1