Consultation news

Queanbeyan consultation starts with a bang

The National Human Rights Consultation Committee held our first Community Roundtable in Queanbeyan yesterday, 11 February 2009. With brilliant attendance of around 70 people, it was a great opportunity to discuss which human rights and responsibilities were important to the people of Queanbeyan.

We had a great start to the day with a Welcome to Country being given by Aunty Jannette Phillips from the Ngunnawal people. The Mayor of Queanbeyan, Councillor Tim Overall then welcomed us to Queanbeyan and the discussions began in earnest! Issues raised ranged from the rights of cyclists through to the rights of children, refugees and asylum seekers.

After the open discussion, we broke into individual groups. Everyone got a chance to speak to the Committee and to participate in lively discussions amongst themselves. We discussed three key questions:

  • Which human rights and responsibilities are important to you?
  • Are these rights and responsibilities adequately protected now?
  • How could rights and responsibilities be further protected in the future?

Some of the key ideas that people wanted to discuss were:

  • Children’s rights
  • Direct incorporation of international conventions into Australian laws
  • Streamlined Federal anti-discrimination laws
  • Charter of Rights
  • Human rights education
  • Harmonisation of State and Territory laws
  • Cyclist’s right to wear or not wear helmets
  • Terrorism laws
  • Sedition laws
  • Detention of non-suspects
  • Preventative detention
  • Mainstreaming of poverty
  • Mental illness and homelessness
  • Erosion of innocent until proven guilty principle
  • Environmental rights
  • Rights of older members of our community
  • Human rights approach to Government decision-making
  • Minority rights

These were only some of the ideas raised and plenty of in-depth discussions were had. It was a great opportunity for all of us to spend time with everyone who attended and we can’t wait to hit the road again next week when we will be visiting Wagga Wagga and Penrith.

Stay tuned to our website for more updates. We look forward to seeing some of you next week.