Australia Day Ambassador address
Cessnock Shire
Council
Graeme Innes AM
26 January 2009
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today.
Thanks for the chance to be your Australia day ambassador. Maureen and I are really pleased to be here for a number of reasons:
First, it's great to celebrate our national day with such a large, diverse and - as we've seen - talented group of Australians. And may I particularly congratulate those who've chosen to join us as Australians today.
Second, many of my relatives, on my mother's side, lived in the Hunter valley, and my wife Maureen was born in Arcadia Vale, so it's a bit like coming home.
And third, it's great to spend a warm and sunny long weekend in one of Australia's premier wine-growing districts. I've felt obliged to check that the wine is still up to quality, and the sampling has been most enjoyable. We also enjoyed the Hunter valley gardens, and some of the tourist features of the region. And we told our daughter the story of pit ponies, so eloquently told in Trish Gillespie’s song.
I think it's important on Australia day that we ask ourselves what sort of Australia we want to live in. I'm quite sure most of you, like me, would say you want to live in a society where respect for the individual is recognised as precious. Where everyone is valued, whether they are male or female, young or old, an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, whatever their faith, whether or not they have a disability - everyone.
As Australians, there is much of which we can be proud. We have a robust democracy, and an independent legal system. There are low levels of official corruption. Most of our communities are safe, and most Australians have access to health care. But we still have some way to go.
Australian law doesn't always protect our human rights, and Australian law makers can abolish most of the rights we have. Innocent people, including children, are unjustly detained. We have deported our own citizens. Our own government has discriminated against our fellow Australians on the basis of race and sexual orientation. When the rights of any person in Australia are denied, we are all diminished.
Neither Australian law-makers, nor those who make decisions under Australian laws, are sufficiently conscious of people's rights. In the last two years, law-makers restricted our freedom of speech during APEC and World Youth Day. Until late last year, whether people received government financial benefits depended on their sexual orientation. In the last five years, public decision-makers deported Australian citizens Cornelia Rau and Vivian Solon. And just last week, a court over-turned the decision of government officials to take two children from their parents.
We need a cultural change in Australia. Law-makers, decision-makers, and in fact all of us, should be more conscious of our human rights, and know how to assert them when threatened. And that's why I believe we need a human rights Act for Australia.
A human rights Act will improve democracy in Australia. It will make government decision making more transparent and accountable. It will not undermine the power of our Parliament to make and change laws. Rather, it will require Parliament to consider human rights standards when making laws, and to justify any decision to depart from those standards.
Like most people, I want to live in an Australia of which I can be uniformly proud. Where freedom, equality and dignity matter. Where human rights matter. We will have this kind of society if the people who make our laws respect human rights, if people who make decisions under those laws respect human rights, and if we all, as members of the Australian community, respect human rights, and live by them. Human rights should be for everyone, everywhere, every day.
So, let's start to talk about rights. We should all understand that, without improving human rights protection in Australia, each and every one of us has the potential to be discriminated against, unjustly detained, or told what we can and cannot say.
The federal government's national consultation on human rights protection is our opportunity to talk about our rights. To talk about options that would ensure those rights are better protected. To continue to build a fair, inclusive, tolerant and secure society. One where human rights matter. Father Frank Brennan, and his consultation panel, want to hear your views. You can find out more at www.humanrights.gov.au.
My Australia day challenge is to make 2009 the year in which we commit ourselves to join all other western democracies, and place freedom, dignity and equality at the centre of Australian life.
But, as I said at the beginning of this speech, there are many things about Australia which make me very proud. We do have a robust democracy. Remember that the only real rebellion against authority was the rum rebellion- typically Australian- it related to alcohol, the government was over-thrown without anyone being hurt, and there was a big party afterwards. And we have a real sense of fun in our approach to life- I've been an Australia day ambassador in shires where the day is celebrated with yabbie racing in the backyard of the local pub, and by a gnome convention. We value our national day, but don't see why this should stop us enjoying it.
So, thanks for the chance to enjoy your celebrations with you, and speak with you today. Our Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi brought back memories for me of the Sydney Olympics and Paralympics, one of the many times I've been proud to be an Australian.
Happy Australia day.
