Episode 23: The People's Constitution by Bronwyn Kelly (Chapter 6 - Part 12)

In Episode 23 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 6 Parts 12 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. In this section Bronwyn examines the risk of enshrining in the Constitution all the human rights currently available in international law and all the attendant lawful obligations of governments to ensure Australians enjoy the full extent of those rights. She demonstrates that the risk of not enshrining rights and obligations in the Constitution is far greater than the risk of continuing to deny rights to Australians that the people of other nations already enjoy. Australians enjoy some human rights, but they may only do so for as long as governments do not make laws against their rights. Considering the track record of removal of rights by Australian governments since 2002, people in Australia should not be complacent about their rights in the future. Bronwyn lists more than 30 human rights that are currently at risk in Australia. She finalises Part 12 with a suggestion that the most effective and efficient way of overcoming these risks is to switch to a system where Australians do not wait for governments to confer rights on them. Instead they confer them equally and in full on each other by establishing in the Constitution a National Agreement on Human Rights and Obligations. 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