It comes as no surprise that Civil Liberties Australia has given the Government an “inconsistent” assessment on its human rights performance (“Rudd Labor ‘inconsistent’ on human rights: report”, Canberra Times, October 4, p8).
Last week, in its response to the challenge by two Aboriginal traditional owners to the Howard government’s Northern Territory emergency intervention legislation, the Rudd Government contended in the High Court that the rights of the traditional owners to access their sacred sites and conduct ceremonies were inherently defeasible and didn’t constitute property. The Government also contended that, pursuant to the constitutional power to legislate for the territories, the Commonwealth could acquire property in the Northern Territory (and the ACT) without any obligation to pay just-terms compensation, hardly contentions that respect the human rights of Aboriginal Australians or the human rights of residents of the Northern Territory or the ACT.
Ernst Willheim, Forrest, ACT, a CLA member