An organisation to defend the Constitution has been formed and will have its inaugural conference in Melbourne this weekend.
The Samuel Griffith Society, named after the first Chief Justice aims to: defend the Australian Constitution against all who would attempt to undermine it and in particular to oppose the further centralisation of power in Canberra.
Among the founders is John Stone, former National Party Senator and Secretary of the Treasury.
Speakers at this weekend’s conference include former Chief Justice Sir Harry Gibbs, Hugh Morgan, chief executive of Western Mining; journalist Frank Devine; lawyer Dr Colin Hughes and Dr David Chessell from Access Economics.
The society seeks “”to oppose the further centralisation of power in Canberra” and to “”restore the authority of Parliament as against that of the Executive and defend the independence of the judiciary”.
The society is concerned about moves to reform the Constitution before the centenary of federation. It says, “”Constitutional reform may well be desirable but it should only occur after exhaustive, community wide debate.”
In an article in The Australian Financial Review yesterday, Mr Stone expressed anger at the thought that Australian matters on human rights might be “”adjudicated upon by a bunch of foreign bureaucrats”. He condemned the idea of a Bill of Rights and condemned High Court judge Sir Gerard Brennan for “”speaking out publicly on a matter of high political moment namely, in Sir Gerard’s view, the need for a Bill of Rights at a conference in Canberra last week.
In fact, Sir Gerard did not overtly support a Bill of Rights. He warned that poll-driven Governments might tend to disregard minority rights and in these circumstances a Bill of Rights might be worth considering. He gave some important qualifications: that a Bill of Rights had to have Australian origins and be given precise wording before it should be put to debate and that the judiciary would have to learn new skills.
Mr Stone objected to government by judges instead of elected representatives who could be thrown out.
Referring to the recent High Court decision to enforce indigenous title to land in Australia, he said he hoped that the Samuel Griffith Society would debate “”whether Australians have not already had a stomach-full of having their Constitution torn up by a succession of increasingly arrogant judicial decisions in Canberra.
Sir Harry Gibbs has been a noted speaker against a Bill of Rights in the Constitution to protect basic human rights, on the ground that the common law and an independent judiciary were sufficient to protect rights, and if they were not, no Bill of Rights would be enough. Judicial climate warms to Bill of Rights _ Page 9.