In Australia's two centuries of government, and our last century of Federal Government, there has been one political reality - if you are politically vulnerable minority, you will be discriminated against by government. Your rights will be violated, your liberties curtailed and your freedom vanquished under the arbitrary discretion of the political cabal of Executive Cabinet.

When the rule of law is replaced with arbitrary decisions, this leads to desperation and despair . Representative Government, and party politics have been incapable of respecting the rights of an individual. For this reason, a Bill of Rights needs to be established, which has either political or punitive ramifications for the legislators that ignore it.

The current situation where refugees are being detained indefinitely is not about government policy, nor ensuring Australia governs its immigration flows, it is about entrenchment, and protecting the existing government from challenge to their power.

Failed Self-Government

NSW and Victoria have had self-government since the 1850s. They were both established after the American innovation of explicit constitutional rights, yet neither adopted it, nor innovated within the Westminster form of government to add protected rights. When Australia federated in 1901, there was the same calamitous silence on individual rights. Many professed to their being British rights inherent in the Westminster form of government, but in reality the "bearded men" wanted wide ranging and tyrannical powers in order to discriminate against the Chinese in Australia.

This is the legacy of our system. It was set up by politicians that wanted to discriminate against minorities, in this instance based on race, and discriminate they did. This led us through the embarrassment of the White Australia policy, and the shameful degradation of Aboriginal Australians through the kidnapping of their children by the state.

Today we have the same problem with refugees. Indefinite detention is a flagrant abuse of government authority. No individual should be kept as a prisoner of the state, restricted in their movement, and association without a charge against them. No individual should be detained without their grievance against the government being dealt with promptly, and by promptly, I mean weeks or months - not years.

One Nation

The current situation we are in, resulted from the poor political judgement of John Howard in 1997. One Nation rose as a popular party in Queensland that spoke to the disaffected Australians, who felt estranged by the economic rationalism and free trade rhetoric coming from Canberra. One Nation spoke to an exclusionary nationalism, one that closed the borders, and wanted Australia to be more Australian.

The Labor Party in the 1997 elections believed One Nation had a repugnant platform, and placed them last in their preferences. Peter Costello believed the same and wanted the Liberal in Queensland to do the same. John Howard disagreed, and wanted Labor last in the Liberal preferences; behind One Nation. Howard has misjudged One Nation's appeal to populism, and the party took 23% of the first preference vote.

John Howard is ever the populist, and either doles out enough money in the right direction, or talks the talk enough to defray popular opinion from damning him. It was in this environment in 2001 that Howard saw his chance to drive a wedge in Labor and neutralise the populist, and nationalistic platform of One Nation. Those that had voted One Nation, had done so by deserting the Liberals and Nationals. In the 2001 federal election, this could have been an issue for the Howard government. Instead we got the "Tampa Affair"

A crisis was fabricated, and was done so, for the purpose of frightening One Nation voters back to the Liberals and Nationals. The refugees, including the children who have known no other life than detention, are paying a price for a government being re-elected on a repugnant and fabricated issue. Now the Liberal government will not admit to error, fabrication of facts and circumstances, nor political opportunism as it sees its legitimacy entwined with the ongoing detention of refugees.

The rights of the refugees are being violated so that John Howard remains entrenched in power. An enforceable Bill of Rights has never been more necessary in Australia.

Enforcing Rights

I believe Avocadia's enunciation of rights is the best on the planet at the moment, and a superior solutions for Australia's political ills. The problem is that governments ignore liberties and rights when it is politically convenient for them to do so.

One solution is to make violating rights have punitive repercussions for legislators. I have no problem in legislators having to tiptoe through a legislative minefield of rights. This would be a good thing in my opinion. The majority government has proved themselves incapable of respecting minorities, so they should not be given that freedom of action.

Another solution is to give the Governor-General the role of a rights protector, a referee for the Bill of Rights. The Governor-General would be required to have the constitutional obligation to veto any legislation that contravenes or violates those rights. This does not stop the government acting in an arbitrary or tyrannical manner, but action is inhibited by the check of the judicial.

Where does this leave the Senate? Unfortunately the Senate is polluted by party discipline. The Senate was supposed to be the house of minority interests. It was structured so that the minor states would have equal representation with the major states, but there has been no votes along state lines - only party lines. There is no relief for the rights of individuals there.

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