Episode 21: The People's Constitution by Bronwyn Kelly (Chapter 6 - Part 9)

In Episode 21 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 6 Part 9 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. In this section she sets out how Australia’s Constitution almost entirely undermines the possibility of its citizens’ access to political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights. Because there is nothing in the Constitution which states what those rights are, federal courts are unable to protect Australians from abuse of their rights by governments. Bronwyn points to the judgements of the High Court in this regard, judgements which indicate clearly that mere legislation is not sufficient to protect human rights. It must be done in the Constitution. Otherwise there is no balance of power that can be achieved. "No balance of power is possible if one of the powers (in this case the High Court) has no power at all under the only instrument that can give it power – the Constitution. The Court’s lesson is that only the people can solve this problem, via a long overdue referendum to insert human rights into the Constitution."Bronwyn finishes by acknowledging that political barriers to this reform will be high but they are not insuperable. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com