For instance, if an Act were designed to prohibit executive decisions that run counter to the international human rights treaties our parliaments have already ratified, we might hope that this would lessen the harms that have flowed from our unconstrained governments in policies such as those on detention of asylum seekers and children, mixing of adult and juvenile offenders as well as accused persons and convicted persons in detention centres, compensation of wrongly convicted persons, whistleblowers making genuine public interest disclosures, compensation of Indigenous peoples for theft of their lands and children, protection of Australians and others from climate change, and protection of Australians from propaganda for war.
Yes, of course we need a Human Rights Act! By Bronwyn Kelly, Pearls and Irritations