National Human Rights Consultation Submission 

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Name: Linda Zibell 

Submission Text: 

My submission is that Australia is well overdue to have a Human
 
Rights Act in place, in law. It is a way we can hold our heads up as a
 
nation, prepared to stand by basic rights. These protections will be
 
viable if enacted at the national level.
 

 
The existing legal and policy framework does not provide enough human
 
rights protection as witnessed by the treatement of Asylum Seekers, and the
 
mentally ill in privately run detention centres supposedly overseen by the
 
federal government. There have been too many instances of homeless,
 
indigenous and/or unwell people slipping through "the cracks" and being
 
wrongly treated by public servants. Federal Government departments and
 
services should be required to develop a human rights culture so that such
 
mistakes do not occur.
 

 
Victoria is the only state that has a Charter
 
of Human Rights and the impact has been positive, with minimal contention.
 
Though the system could be abused this is simply the same as for other
 
legislation and that is what we have judges for anyway, to decide upon
 
such issues.
 

 
Yours sincerely,
 

 
Linda Zibell 

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