Why Australia NEEDS a constitutionally entrenched Bill of Rights.

In short, because we cannot trust our politicians on both sides any longer. Little by little under the guise of 'protecting Australia and Australians from terrorism and foreign influence' our main political parties have forgotten, or worse, abrogated their responsibilities to us. Little by little governments of both colours have (and are) chipping away at the very freedoms so many decent and gallant Australians fought so hard and ultimately died for.

I say 'under the guise of terrorism' because by making Australians 'fearful' of the future, they are implementing public policy on the run to play into the very hands of these so called "terrorists".

If we fall into the error of enacting reactionary legislation like that which has been recently floated in the Commonwealth Parliament by the current government with the support of the opposition, such as the 'Foreign Transparency Bill 2018', we will be committing a very grave error.

Governments are supposed to protect citizens freedoms not find ways to eliminate them. Because we have a totally compliant mainstream media which likes to entrench the status quo of a 'two party system', people are being conned into believing if the government is bad the opposition will hold them to account. Nothing could be further from the truth. Under that proposed legislation I spoke of, an individual in a private phone conversation with something as innocuous as a relative or friend talking about the state of politics in our nation (or abroad), could easily fall foul of the new law and face up to 7 years in jail if they do not self-register as a political lobbyist, at a fee.

Unfortunately the mainstream media has been highly negligent in not bringing the full potential effect of this legislation to the attention of the voting public, for obvious (agenda driven) reasons.

We live in new and troubling times in which seeking out the 'truth' of any one given situation is as difficult as finding a needle in a hay stack. This is because so much of what used to be investigative journalism is now being substituted by opinion of so called 'experts' trying to tell us what's good for us.

Australian's have always had a healthy distrust of our main political parties, this is evidenced by the fact that for most of the last 40 years no government or opposition has held the numbers in both houses of Parliament resulting in what is known as the 'balance of power' structure ensuring a vital role for the minor parties and independents in holding the government of the day to account. For most of the 70's, 80's and 90's this was done by the Australian Democrats under the watchful eye of the (late) great Don Chipp who founded the Australian Democrats with the ethos of "keeping the bastards honest".

Since the demise of that great party at the hands of one of its last leaders Meg Lees (for good reason in breaking an election pledge on the GST) our Parliament has been somewhat bereft of cogent and erudite leaders able to follow in the big shoes of Don Chipp.

If the Australian Democrats (or an outfit of similar ilk) could recapture this essential role once again, maybe, just maybe we could have a result similar to that in Italy at the moment with an anti-establishment movement called "Five Star". Five Star stunningly snatched almost 33% of the votes in recent March national elections in that country forcing the 3 major parties into a position to have to undertake major change so sorely urged by the electorate. One can only live in hope.

One thing is for certain, Australia NEEDS a constitutionally entrenched Bill of Rights enshrining the basic minimal rights from further Commonwealth encroachment. We need a Bill that will protect the:

1. Right to life.

2. Right to liberty.

3. Right to freedom of speech, expression and creativity.

4. Right to association.

5. Right to privacy.

6. Right to private property (from government regulation tantamount to an acquisition)

7. Right to protest.

8. Right to encryption.

9. Right against mass surveillance.

10. Right to the presumption of innocence.

These are just 10 Rights I would pursue as ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, there are many others, but we MUST ensure we get these Rights attached to our constitution ASAP before 'Big Brother Government' with the help of their appointed judges truly act as judges, juries and executioners of whatever little Rights we have left. None of these 10 'Rights' are currently protected under our domestic laws and ALL are contained in international declarations to which Australia is a party.

Making such a Bill of Rights unambiguously constitutionally entrenched will tie the hands of ALL politicians and judges from any attempt to diminish, reduce or do away with our rights once and for all.

Please raise this serious issue with your local member as a matter of urgency.