By Paula Gerber and Melissa Castan Australia is the only Western democracy that does not have a national Human Rights Act, but this may be about to change. After an inquiry lasting more than a year, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has just delivered its report to parliament. The report sets out 17 recommendations, including that “the government introduce legislation to establish a Human Rights Act”. The report is a comprehensive 486 pages. Of particular note is that of the 335 submissions received, 87.2% (292) support the adoption of federal Human Rig ..read more

By Joseph Friedman In July of this year, a group of passionate individuals and criminal justice organisations will launch an ambitious project: Australia’s first national prison newspaper. The paper will be called About Time.  This will be a paper for incarcerated people, by incarcerated people. It will provide a window into the concealed world of incarceration and a voice to the incarcerated. It will be a platform for education and news, expression and hope.  There are approximately 42,000 people in Australian prisons. A staggering 38% of those are pre-trial detainees/remand pr ..read more

By Paula Gerber Around the world, the human rights of transgender people are under attack. Media reports of trans women being vilified, excluded and discriminated against are frequent, and the consequences of this rise in hatred towards trans people can be deadly.  In the United States, animosity towards trans people is reaching fever pitch with 42 of the 50 states introducing laws that seek to limit trans people’s access to healthcare, participation in sport, use of bathrooms and serving in the military, as well as censoring education about gender identity. There is i ..read more

By Wayne Atkinson and Kevin Bell The Voice referendum was a disappointing result for many, but there is hope that much of its vision could be achieved via a different path. The Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs has presented a report to federal parliament calling for the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The committee was led by Uncle Patrick Dodson, a Yawuru poltician who is retiring from the senate on January 26, the anniversary of Australia’s invasion. The Decl ..read more

By Paula Gerber and Melissa Castan In the lead-up to the Voice referendum there was widespread consensus that Australia needed to do more to improve the lives of First Nations peoples but there was significant disagreement about how to go about this. Australians rejected the proposal for a Voice to Parliament embedded in the constitution. This week marked 100 days since that unsuccessful referendum. By now we expected those who campaigned against the constitutional reform would have stepped up with their proposals about how to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. Alas, there has b ..read more

By Paula Gerber The No campaign repeatedly says that Australians should not support the Voice because it is divisive. This fundamentally misconstrues what we are being asked to vote on. The Voice is like a marriage proposal, not a divorce petition. It is about unity, not division. The call for the Voice comes from the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The final sentence reads “We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.” This is an offer work together for a more harmonious future.  The referendum is akin to Indigenous Australians ‘popp ..read more

By Ethan Katz Australian electoral practices are often thought to be an almost best-practice example of democracy in action. Voters are granted a secret ballot, so that only they know who they voted for. The nation holds its elections on Saturdays, provides an ample pre-polling window and postal voting for people who may not be able to vote in person on election day, and has all of its redistricting and election counts conducted by a genuinely independent electoral commission. It is also mandatory for Australian adults to vote. Malcolm Mackerras and Ian McAllister believe that this set of ..read more

By Muriel Bamblett For me, like many Aboriginal people, there are many visible and invisible challenges when putting an Aboriginal voice in the room. You never really know the people in the room or what their knowledge and experiences of Aboriginal people are. Nor whether they believe the myths and stereotypes of ‘Aboriginal’. There is also the challenge of addressing theknowledge, skills, and awareness gaps that Australia has in relation to its First Peoples. For me, the Aboriginal voice is not a single voice. It is a collective voice of a people who all speak in unison, but not always u ..read more

By Alexandra George This month, the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law launched ASK US FIRST, a video campaign advocating for a YES vote in the upcoming referendum on the Voice. ASK US FIRST centres First Nations voices in the debate and encourages non-Indigenous Australians to respond generously and from the heart to their invitation. The Uluru Statement from the Heart invited all Australians to walk together for a better future, and to start that process by enshrining an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice in the Constitution.  However, polling suggests that the question undeci ..read more

By Melissa Castan and Lynette Russell Despite the political debate that has ensued around the Voice proposal, the choice of an institutional advisory body that informs Parliament and the executive government is entirely unremarkable. It is a modest proposal. We barely cast a glance at the work of the Productivity Commission or the Australian Law Reform Commission, both of which are mainstream advisory bodies to the national government. They inform law-making; their advice may be considered, or not. Similarly, the Voice to Parliament will have the capacity to inform policy and reform, but it is ..read more