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Write to your local politicians to adopt a Human Rights Act for Australia


The Albanese Government has consulted on the proposal to introduce a Human Rights Framework.  After considering 335 public submissions and 4135 letters this year, the joint parliamentary committee strongly endorsed the Australian Human Rights Commission’s reform proposals. We are encouraging you to write to remind the government that there is strong support for a Human Rights Act to ensure that Human rights are upheld in Australian society.
10 December is Human Rights Day, commemorating the day in 1948 when the UN Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed.  If you can, please write to your local MP and Senators before 10 December to remind them of the day and of Australia’s responsibility as a signatory to the Declaration.

While there is a strong sense of human rights and freedoms in Australia, the legal protection of human rights in Australia is, in fact, very limited. As things stand now, the Australian government is not obliged to consider human rights in their policy or decision-making.

Nothing has made that more clear than the brutal immigration legislation pushed through Parliament this week, what the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre’s  Kon Karapanagiotidis has described as the “Albanese Government’s ultimate betrayal”. The Government did a deal with Opposition leader Peter Dutton to pass a trio of Bills into law. Read more here https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/nov/25/labor-three-migration-bills-what-new-powers-are-sought-and-will-the-coalition-vote-them-through

According to the Refugee Council of Australia:

    These new laws are the most extreme that we have seen in a decade.

    They will have major consequences for refugees, migrants and people seeking protection that will be felt for years to come. 

    We don’t yet know the full impact or extent of these laws; there simply hasn’t been enough time given to review and scrutinise the legislation or to consult         with communities impacted and the organisations that support them. 

    What we do know is that the current or any future Australian Government now has the authority to: 

  • Rescind a refugee’s protection finding in order to remove them from Australia 
  • Pay undisclosed third countries to warehouse non-citizens 
  • Imprison people who will not return to countries where they fear for their lives 
  • Create travel bans for citizens of certain countries to pressure their governments to accept forced returns 
  • Seize mobile phones and conduct unwarranted searches on people in immigration detention 

    Where the Government has written these laws to absolve itself of responsibility, we as a community will fill that gap: to advocate for families forced apart, to     keep track of how those deported to unknown or dangerous places are faring, to advocate for alternatives to the implementation of these draconian powers,     and to keep demanding accountability and transparency from the Government.

https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/dismay-at-new-draconian-migration-laws

When in Opposition, the Labor Party assured refugee advocates that the only way Australia would get fair and humane treatment of refugees and people seeking asylum would be through a Labor government. This is what we got instead.

As discouraging as this is, it’s more important than ever that we support each other to remain strong in our fight for justice for refugees because: If we don’t, who will?