10 February 2000

Victorian Council for Civil Liberties Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee Inquiry into the Anti-Genocide Bill 1999 (Cth.) was submitted by the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties Sub-Committee on Genocide Steven Tudor, Anne O’Rourke and Colin Campbell.

Executive Summary | Complete Submission

17 March 2000

Liberty Victoria Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee with respect to the Committees’ Inquiry into the Stolen Generation

Complete Submission

Editorial

Liberty Victoria Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee with respect to the Committees’ Inquiry into the Stolen Generation

The Recommendation and the Commonwealth Government Response

These recommendations propose the enactment of national legislation implementing minimum standards for the treatment of indigenous children. The Government response is that this is a matter for individual States.

Liberty’s position

Liberty submits that this response is grossly inadequate, in light of the past history of State treatment of indigenous children which is exposed in the Bringing Them Home Report. Treating minimum standards as a "States rights" issue ignores the national interest in recognising and rectifying past wrongs and achieving reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

All members of the Australian community have a common interest in the fair treatment of indigenous people and their children and in the achieving of the aims contained in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination and in allowing respect for the human rights and dignity of persons who, currently, by reason of their race are discriminated against. The recent suicide of an Aboriginal child in custody and concern about the effects of State and Territory mandatory sentencing laws on Aboriginal children illustrate the need for the Commonwealth to take a leadership role in this area. In this regard, Liberty strongly supports the findings of the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee Inquiry into the Human Rights (Mandatory Sentencing of Juvenile Offenders) Bill 1999, that mandatory sentencing, particularly for juveniles, is entirely inappropriate.

States which have enacted laws which have a discriminatory impact on Aboriginal people and their children are unlikely to repeal such laws in order to implement the standards recommended in the Report. Liberty urges the Federal Government to take responsibility for the implementation of these standards, if necessary by enacting legislation based on the external affairs power and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is simply not sufficient for the Federal Government to avoid the need to address such a vitally important issue by claiming that such an issue is a matter for the States. The continued insistence that this is the case can only be regarded as a very serious shirking of responsibility by the Federal Government

Liberty Victoria

17 March 2000

Click here for the complete submission