By GetUp!
"It looks like two-fifths of bugger all." 1
That's how today's Sydney Morning Herald described this week's announcement by the Attorney General to ignore the majority of Australians who support enshrining our rights into a Human Rights Act.
Instead, the Attorney announced a piecemeal approach including a human rights forum, more education, and parliamentary oversight (so those who write the law can police themselves). Australia now remains the only Western democracy in the world to not have formal protection of its people's rights.
Even though the Government ignored its own inquiry, as one of 26,000 GetUp members who took part in Australia's largest ever public consultation, you were instrumental in ensuring the Brennan inquiry concluded that the vast majority of Australians support a Human Rights Act.
GetUp members played a leading role in the debate:
Over 10,000 members made personal submissions to the inquiry;
Over 200 'GetTogethers' were held in homes, cafes and town halls across the country organized and facilitated by GetUp members; and
Almost 4,000 of us attended one of the inquiry's 60 public roundtables (which all up drew an audience of 6,000 Australians).
We should all be proud of the work we've done to start a national human rights conversation.
The GetUp movement has always been resilient and in this moment we must vow to go where the Federal Government will not. We must be the Australians who continue to stand up for the rights of the marginalised and the forgotten.
And that starts today.
This long holiday weekend Curtin detention centre is being prepared to hide away asylum seekers for the first time in almost 8 years.
That's why in the last 48 hours GetUp members have chipped in over $60,000 to air a new TV ad aimed at highlighting the truth about the human rights of those who seek asylum in Australia.
Join them and see the ad here:
www.getup.org.au/campaign/TheHumanFace
GetUp is a movement of 350,000 people - larger then the membership of all political parties combined. So it is up to us to continue to stand for the rights of all on our land.
We've ended the policy of locking up children in detention, got rid of freedom of speech limiting sedition laws, brought David Hicks home to face the Australian justice system and we're continuing to campaign against the Government's internet censorship agenda.
With the knowledge that we will continue the fight for basic human dignity, rights and respect we can and will make this country a more fair, just and sustainable place to live.
Yours in hope,
The GetUp team
P.S. If you'd like to find our more about the Government's human rights announcement - we've put the details up on our blog.
Sources:
[1] http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/bring-out-your-dead-20100423-tj51...
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GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you'd like to contribute to help fund GetUp's work, please donate now! If you have trouble with any links in this email, please go directly to www.getup.org.au. To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here.
Authorised by Simon Sheikh, Level 5, 116 Kippax St, Surry Hills NSW 2010