Rights In Australia Research Articles

Human Rights in Australia

Human Rights in Australia

Book Reviews

Australian Journal of Politics & HistoryVolume 38, Issue 3 p. 461-501 Book Reviews First published: December 1992 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8497.1992.tb00684.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Abstract Book reviewed in this article: AUSTRALASIA. IMAGES OF AUSTRALIA Edited by Gillian Whitlock and David Carter. AUSTRALIA COMPARED: People, Policies and Politics Edited by Francis G. Castles. MILLERS POINT: The Urban Village By Shirley Fitzgerald and Christopher Keating. AUSTRALIA'S COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENT 1901–1988 By G. S. Reid and Martyn Forrest THE WAAAF IN WARTIME AUSTRALIA By Joyce A. Thomon. IMIN NANMIN ENJO NO SEIJIGAKU: Oosutoraraia to kokusai shakai [POLITICS OF MIGRATION, REFUGEES, AND FOREIGH AID: Australia and International Society] Isami Takeda. HAWKE AND PUBLIC POLICY: Consensus and restructuring Edited by Christine Jennett and Randal G. Stewart. HAWKE'S LAW: The Politics of Mining and Aboriginal Land Rights in Australia By Ronald T. Libby. ABORIGINES AND POLITICAL POWER By Scott Bennett. SON OF ALYANDABU By Joe McGinness. THE PRICE OF HEALTH: Australian Governments and Medical Politics 1910–1960 By James A. Gillespie. HISTORY OF TUBERCULOSIS IN AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND PAPUA NEW GUINEA Edited by A. J. Proust. WORKING FOR CHANGE: The Movement Against Domestic Violence By Heather McGregor and Andrew Hopkins. WORKING AUSTRALIA By Charlie Fox. GAY PERSPECTIVES; ESSAYS IN AUSTRALIAN GAY CULTURE Edited by Robert Aldrich and Gamy Wotherspoon. THE NERVOUS NINETIES: Australian Cultural Life in 1890s By John Docker. THE 1990 GENERAL ELECTION: Perspectives on Political Change in New Zealand Edited by E. McLeay. PAPUA NEW GUINEA: The Challenge of Independence By Mark Turner. PAPUA NEW GUINEA By Sean Dorney. EUROPE. THE EUROPEAN DYNASTIC STATES 1494–1660: The Short Oxford History of the Modern World Series By Richard Bonney. THE MAKING OF MODERN FRANCE: Politics, Ideology and Culture By Emmanuel Todd. THE FRENCH HISTORICAL REVOLUTION: The Annals School, 1929-89 By Peter Burke. THE REVENGE OF HISTORY: Marxism and the East European Revolutions Alex Callinicos. EUROPE FROM BELOW: An East-West Dialogue Edited by Mary Kaldor. GORBACHEV Zhores Medvedev. FROM PADUA TO THE TRIANON; 1918–1920 By Maria Ormos. NORTH AMERICA. AMERICA RECOMMITTED: United States national Interests in a Restructured World By Donald E. Nuechterlein. AGENTS OF REPRESSION: The FBI's Secret War Against the Black Panther Party and he American Indian Movement By Ward Churchill and Jim VanderWall LIBERTY & COMMUNITY: Canadian Federalism and the Failure of the Constitution By Robert C. Vipond. ASIA. DIPLOMATIC IDEAS AND PRACTICES OF ASIAN STATES Edited by Ashok Kapur. WOMEN IN INDIA AND NEPAL Edited by Michael Alien and S. N. Mukherjee. THE SIKHS: History, Religion and Society By W. H. McLeod. THE COMMONWEALTH ARMIES AND THE KOREAN WAR; An Alliance Study By Jeffery Grey. BUSINESS-GOVERNMENT RELATIONS ININDUSTRIALISING EAST ASIA: South Korea and Thailand By Andrew Maclntyre. CROSSING THE INDUSTRIAL DIVIDE: State, Society and the Poitics of Economic Transformation in Malaysia By Alasdair Bowie. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: Global and Australian Perspectives on an Evolving Discipline Edited by Richard Higgott and J. L. Richardson. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN POLITICAL THEORY By Howard Williams. GERMANY, AMERICA, EUROPE: Forty years of German Foreign Policy By Wolfram Hawieder. SECURITY AND DEFENCE: Pacific and Global Perspectives Edited by Desmond Ball Md Cathy Downes. AID AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC By Peter Bauer, Savenuca Siwatibau and Wolfgang Kasper. FRANCE AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC: A Contemporary History By Stephen Henningham. POLITICS AND IDEAS. NEW HORIZONS IN POLITICS: Essays with an Australian Focus Edited by Hugh V. Emy and Andrew Linklater. JIDICIAL ACTIVISM IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Edited by Kenneth M. Holland. ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS COMES OF AGE By Gerald E. Caiden. THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF MONTAIGNE By David Lewis Schaefer. THE LIFE AND THOUGHT OF FRIEDRICH ENGELS: A Reinterpretation By J. D. Hunley. THE BLACKWELL ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF POLITICAL THOUGHT Edited by David Miller. THE BLACKWELL ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Edited by Vernon Bogdunor. Social science methodology: a Brief But Critical Introduction By Frank Lewins. Volume38, Issue3December 1992Pages 461-501 RelatedInformation

JV Barry: A Life

JV Barry: A Life is the history of John Vincent Barry: judge, historian, criminologist, civil libertarian and public intellectual before his time. Mark Finnane's authoritative biography traces Barry's development from his Irish Catholic boyhood in rural New South Wales to the deeply felt aspirations and personal conflicts of a judge and intellectual in an era dominated by the Menzies government, the Labor split, and an international Cold War. Seen through the eyes of a keen observer of the times, JV Barry: A Life is also a history of Australian life from the 1920s to the 1960s, documenting the growth of state powers in an age of security concerns, and the significant impact of these on the privacy of individuals. It also documents Barry's role as the intellectual founder of the discipline of criminology in Australia. Drawing on more than 10,000 letters as well as interviews with those who knew him, Mark Finnane looks at Barry in the cultural, political and intellectual milieu of inter- and post-war Australia, and describes Barry's considerable role in the creation of a discourse of justice and human rights in Australia.

“Out of Everywhere into Here”—The Disparate Bases of Childrens’ Rights in Australia

(2007). “Out of Everywhere into Here”—The Disparate Bases of Childrens’ Rights in Australia. Asia Pacific Law Review: Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 235-258.

The Social Construction of Indigenous `Native Title' Land Rights in Australia

Legal scholars and political theorists dominate academic writing on the issue of indigenous peoples' rights. This article, however, adopts a sociological approach, analysing indigenous rights in Australia as a socially constructed phenomenon, the product of ideals, entrenched colonial structures and the balance of power between political interests. It shows how, during rights institutionalization processes, ably aided by a receptive government and media, commercial lobby groups constructed propaganda campaigns to further their interests to the detriment of indigenous interests. The resultant legislation was an exercise in rights limitation behind a veneer of agrarian reform. The article concludes by highlighting the tension between national rights regimes of this nature and international human rights norms and suggests an approach that could overcome this problem.

Mordy Bromberg and Mark Irving (eds), Australian Charter of Employment Rights, Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne, 2007, pp. xiv + 158, $29.95 (paper).

Mordy Bromberg and Mark Irving (eds), Australian Charter of Employment Rights, Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne, 2007, pp. xiv + 158, $29.95 (paper). A. B. Fields and W D. Narr, in 'Human rights as a holistic concept' (1992: 6), view 'the world as a field of struggle over rights without any guarantee of success' The price of human rights, like freedom, is eternal vigilance. Rights have to be fought for and defended, over and over again. There is no guarantee that even when a nation has ratified various human rights instruments developed by the international community, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and various Conventions of the International Labour Organisation--what Binion (1995: 525) has referred to as 'beautifully crafted ... documents'--they will be observed. Since the mid 1980s, there has been an assault on, and an erosion of, employment rights in Australia. Various business and employer groups, the Liberal and National Parties Coalition, at both the federal and state level, and various 'think tanks, such as the H. R. Nicholls Society, have mounted attacks on the rights and benefits of workers, trade unions and traditional regulatory instruments, such as the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. The election of the federal coalition in 1996 enabled such plans to be implemented. They occurred in two stages. The first, was the passage of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth.), and the second, the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act 2005 (Cth.). Commentaries on these developments are contained in the May 2006 issue of this journal. In response to these changes, The Australian Institute of Employment Rights has developed A Charter of Employment Rights. In the Introduction, Mordy Bromberg writes that the Charter 'is a back-to-basics attempt to define the rights of workers and employers' (p. 1). It 'has been built upon the guarantee of individual fairness and reasonableness' (p. 5). Bromberg maintains that: A successful workplace relations system will be built on the premise that high productivity and high worker satisfaction are both enhanced by investment: workers investing in their workplace and employees investing in their workers. This workplace investment compact will be founded on an appreciation that the legitimate expectations of workers and those of employees are not mutually exclusive but are largely complementary (p. …

Recognizing Aboriginal Title: The Mabo Case and Indigenous Resistance to English-Settler Colonialism

Recognizing Aboriginal Title: The Mabo Case and Indigenous Resistance to English-Settler Colonialism, Peter H. Russell, Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press, 2005, pp. xii, 470.Peter Russell's insightful book on Aboriginal land rights in Australia weaves together two tales, that of Indigenous crusader Eddie Koiki Mabo and the slow and arduous struggle of Torres Strait Islanders and mainland Aborigines to have their native land rights recognized by Australian governments in the hope of forging a new, post-colonial relationship. Along the way, Russell places these stories in the context of the push and pull of international events and movements that affected Australia's domestic politics and assesses the political progress of Indigenous peoples in Canada, the United States and New Zealand.

Ecotourism and Indigenous Rights in Australia

Ecotourism is big business and a complex and contradictory activity that boils down to an industry geared up to take people off the beaten path to places where many are not likely to go. It also le...

Workers' Human Rights in Australia

This paper is about the legal protection of the human rights of workers in Australia. I focus in particular on aspects of the protection of freedom of association, and how Australian law acts to eliminate discrimination in employment and occupation. This focus of course takes in only two of the four areas covered by the core labour standards of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), leaving out the issues of child labour and forced labour. It therefore sidesteps the debate about the adequacy of the ILO's conception of what are core labour standards, and avoids important questions about the implementation of some of Australia's international obligations as a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), in particular as concerns the rights to work, to just and favourable conditions of work, and to social security. I have selected the focus despite these limitations because of the significant volume of material on the topics, and because they serve to illustrate more fully some of the significant limitations of Australian law as a means of protecting workers' human rights.

‘Bringing the Head and the Body Together’

Valerie Mason-John began her writing career as an international correspondent covering Aboriginal Land Rights in Australia. In 2000, she won the Windrush Achievement Award for services to the Briti...

Coolamon subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L. var. subterraneum)

Coolamon is a mid-season to late-season flowering F4-derived crossbred subterranean clover of var. subterraneum, developed by the collaborating organisations of the National Annual Pasture Legume Improvement Program. It is a replacement for Junee and has been selected for release on the basis of its greater herbage production and persistence, and its resistance to both known races of clover scorch. Coolamon is recommended for sowing in Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. It is best suited to well-drained, moderately acidic soils in areas with a growing season of 6.5–8 months that extends into November. Coolamon is best suited to phase farming and permanent pasture systems. It can also be used in cropping rotations, but at least 2 years of pasture are required between crops. Coolamon has been granted Plant Breeders Rights in Australia.

Erosion of Access to Abortion in the United States: Lessons for Australia

<p>Since the legalisation of abortion in the United States (US) in 1973, access to abortion has been restricted and under attack from multiple fronts. From a pro-choice perspective, this article analyses the way women’s access to abortion has been eroded in the US. This article considers: Roe v Wade and chronicles the subsequent cases decided by the US Supreme Court which have gradually dismantled its holding; the various US state and federal legislative restrictions on abortion and their impact on access to abortion; the new composition of the US Supreme Court and the consequences for women’s access to legal abortion; and a brief overview of abortion in Australia. Awareness of anti-choice tactics used to restrict access to abortion in the US may prevent a similar erosion of abortion rights in Australia.</p>

Izmir subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L. var. subterraneum)

Izmir is a hardseeded, early flowering, subterranean clover of var. subterraneum (Katz. et Morley) Zohary and Heller collected from Turkey and developed by the collaborating organisations of the National Annual Pasture Legume Improvement Program. It is a more hardseeded replacement for Nungarin and best suited to well-drained, moderately acidic soils in areas with a growing season of less than 4.5 months. Izmir seed production and regeneration densities in 3-year pasture phases were similar to Nungarin in 21 trials across southern Australia, but markedly greater in years following a crop or no seed set. Over all measurements, Izmir produced 10% more winter herbage and 7% more spring herbage than Nungarin. Its greater hardseededness and good seed production, makes it better suited to cropping rotations than Nungarin. Softening of Izmir hard seeds occurs later in the summer–autumn period than Nungarin, giving it slightly greater protection from seed losses following false breaks to the season. Izmir is recommended for sowing in Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. Izmir has been granted Plant Breeders Rights in Australia.

Urana subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L. var. subterraneum)

Urana is a hardseeded, moderately early flowering F5-derived crossbred subterranean clover of var. subterraneum [(Katz. et Morley) Zohary and Heller] developed by the collaborating organisations of the National Annual Pasture Legume Improvement Program. It has been selected for release as a new cultivar on the basis of its high winter and spring herbage production and overall field performance relative to other subterranean clovers of similar maturity. Urana is recommended for sowing in Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. It is best suited to well-drained, moderately acidic soils in areas with a growing season of 5–7 months, which extends into mid-October. Urana is suited to phase farming and crop rotations. It has been granted Plant Breeders Rights in Australia.

Evaluating the Human Rights Performance of Australian Legislatures: A Research Agenda and Methodology

Parliaments play an essential yet under-explored role in the protection and undermining of human rights. Both theoretical and political debate have emphasised the importance of the role of parliament, and academics such as Jeremy Waldron have defended legislatures as capable of playing a sophisticated role in applying rights to particular circumstances. In this paper we set out a methodology for testing the claims that parliaments are capable of protecting human rights. We also critically analyze some of the common methods utilized for measuring rights, in part by reference to developments in rights theory. This paper is part of a wider project on parliaments and human rights in Australia. Australia is a particularly important testing ground for such theories as, despite a public commitment by its leadership to human rights, it has no formal bill of rights and thus little by way of judicial review of rights.

Universal rights in conflict: 'Backlash' and 'benevolent resistance' to indigenous land rights

Anthropology TodayVolume 21, Issue 2 p. 14-20 Universal rights in conflict: ‘Backlash’ and ‘benevolent resistance’ to indigenous land rights Eva Mackey, Eva Mackey Eva Mackey is Assistant Professor and Graduate Director at the Department of Anthropology, McMaster University. Her research has focused on the limits of tolerance in the context of official multiculturalism in Canada, and the backlash to Native rights in Australia and Canada. Publications include House of difference: Cultural politics and national identity in Canada (University of Toronto Press 2002). Her current research explores conflicts over property, history and land rights in settler nations. Her email is mackeye@mcmaster.ca.Search for more papers by this author Eva Mackey, Eva Mackey Eva Mackey is Assistant Professor and Graduate Director at the Department of Anthropology, McMaster University. Her research has focused on the limits of tolerance in the context of official multiculturalism in Canada, and the backlash to Native rights in Australia and Canada. Publications include House of difference: Cultural politics and national identity in Canada (University of Toronto Press 2002). Her current research explores conflicts over property, history and land rights in settler nations. Her email is mackeye@mcmaster.ca.Search for more papers by this author First published: 20 April 2005 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0268-540X.2005.00340.xCitations: 14 I would like to thank everyone I interviewed and spent time with in Chatham-Kent, Ontario and upper New York State. I am also grateful to all the people who commented on versions of this paper at various conferences and presentations, to my colleagues at McMaster, and to the anonymous AT reviewers. Thanks especially to Ernest Olson for permission to share his photos. This research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the MCRI on Globalization and Autonomy at McMaster, and the McMaster Arts Research Board. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume21, Issue2April 2005Pages 14-20 RelatedInformation

Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights in Australia and Southeast Asia

This paper will present a short survey of various approaches to traditional knowledge and folklore protection in Australia and Southeast Asia. It seems that both the terminology used in the debate about traditional knowledge and folklore and the legal solutions envisaged are very diverse. Over the last decade there has been an explosion of international declarations and organisations advocating internationally harmonised notions of rights to culture, often on behalf of indigenous minorities or other local communities. This often leads to what Cowan, Dembour and Wilson have called “strategic essentialism”. The term refers to the attempts by activists from or working on behalf of communities to define unanimous or seemingly unanimous demands with regard to culture and rights and to make them fit into the categories of national or international legal regimes. The authors assume that “we need to be more cognisant of the role played by law in essentialising categories and fixing identities, as a concomitant of its task of developing general principles to include, ideally, all possible cases.” In other words, litigants in cases involving indigenous rights legislation might be forced to adopt a notion of culture as static and inflexible and “as a pre-existing given . . . rather than as something creatively reworked during struggles to actualise rights.” As a result, the international concepts of community rights to culture and heritage in the form of traditional knowledge or folklore protection begin to look more unified than they actually are.

Failing to Achieve Equality: Disability Rights in Australia, Canada, and the United States

Failing to Achieve Equality: Disability Rights in Australia, Canada, and the United States

Maximising Social Utility and Protecting Private Rights: Constitutional Property Rights in Australia

Section 51(xxxi) of the Australian Constitution operates as one of the few rights-protecting provisions in the Constitution. It is framed as a grant of power to the Commonwealth Parliament that enables it to make laws with respect to the compulsory acquisition of property on just terms. However, it has been interpreted as a constitutional guarantee that withdraws from the Commonwealth Parliament any powers it might have had to make laws with respect to the acquisition of property other than on just terms. Unfortunately, the proper interpretation of s 51(xxxi) is unclear and contested and in some areas is close to incoherent. I argue in this Chapter that the complexity and contestedness is probably inevitable. Constitutional property clauses such as s 51(xxxi) attempt to mediate the perennial, and irreducibly moral, conflict between the need for stability of entitlements, on the one hand, and the need for flexibility and modification of entitlements in light of changed circumstances, on the other. The spare text of such clauses provides no secure criteria for resolving the conflict and the moral principles which might be called in aid are deeply contested. Most of the High Court's options for dealing with s 51(xxxi) are unappealing. However, there may be a way forward in an interpretive approach that directly recognises the primacy of political institutions in resolving the conflict between stability and flexibility, coupled with measures that increase the capacity of those institutions to address property rights issues.

The Vulnerability of Indigenous Land Rights in Australia and Canada

The Vulnerability of Indigenous Land Rights in Australia and Canada