Saturday, June 18, 2005

No free speech for Australians of any origin

There is, of course, no constitutional right to free speech in Australia, with an implied right only being interpreted from the nature of the Australian Constitution, by three esteemed members of the judiciary.

With our country's origins as a convict settlement, carved from the toil of the working class and the hardships of petty criminals who suffered brutal human rights violations while doing hard labour in Australian colonies, our distinct lack of a right to have a say, should really come as no surprise.

With Australia's pivotal contribution to drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights it is a reasonable assumption which leads Australians of many backgrounds to think there is a right for protest, or a right to free speech.

There would appear to be discrepancies between those drafted human rights and our guaranteed constitutional rights, but it is unlikely, with the resurgence of conservative right-wing religion and politics which work so agreeably with corporate globalization, that human rights concerns banished as the bastion of the left-wing, will be considered anything more than dissidence.