Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- I Contemporary Theories of Australian Politics
- Part II Politics in Everyday Australian Life
- Part III Elections
- Part IV Participation and Representation
- Part V Inside the Australian State
- Part VI Contemporary Public Controversies
- Introduction to Part VI
- 25 A Bill of Rights
- 26 Spending and taxing
- 27 Employment and education
- 28 Cities
- 29 Indigenous Australians
- 30 Health
- 31 The environment
- 32 Australia in the world
- Glossary
- References
- Index
- References
25 - A Bill of Rights
from Part VI - Contemporary Public Controversies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- I Contemporary Theories of Australian Politics
- Part II Politics in Everyday Australian Life
- Part III Elections
- Part IV Participation and Representation
- Part V Inside the Australian State
- Part VI Contemporary Public Controversies
- Introduction to Part VI
- 25 A Bill of Rights
- 26 Spending and taxing
- 27 Employment and education
- 28 Cities
- 29 Indigenous Australians
- 30 Health
- 31 The environment
- 32 Australia in the world
- Glossary
- References
- Index
- References
Summary
Different democratic theories suggest different approaches to the protection and promotion of particular rights (see Chapter 1). A Bill of Rights has been a common institutional protection in many modern democracies. In Australia, however, contention remains as to whether or not other institutional protections of rights are adequate. Other levels of debate are also evident. While liberal feminists, for example, might welcome the protection of women’s rights in such a Bill (see Chapter 4), other critical theorists would argue that a Bill of Rights can do little to shift fundamental inequalities of class, gender and race in Australia. In any case, the institutional barriers to a Bill of Rights in Australia are strong (see Chapter 2). One of the key hurdles any constitutionally entrenched Bill of Rights would have to clear is the reluctance to support constitutional reform (see Chapter 3) that has been noted in behaviouralist studies of the Australian electorate. A considerable discourse around rights has grown in Australia (see Chapter 5), much of it influenced by international norms (see Chapter 6).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Contemporary Politics in AustraliaTheories, Practices and Issues, pp. 286 - 295Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012