$19.95 (Paperback book / Vintage / ISBN:9781741666823)
The Statute Of Liberty: How Australians Can Take Back Their Rights
The Australian people emerged from a polyglot mixture of nationalities and other races: a kind of human minestrone. Not only a race, but a race apart, thanks to the kindness of distance. What distinctive moral vision have we attained from the struggles and sacrifices of our forebears? If we are to preserve the part of our heritage to do with freedom, we must write down the entitlement of every citizen in a way that politicians and public servants will respect. That means they must be turned into law. If they are not capable of legal enforcement then they are not 'rights', they are empty promises. The Australian Attorney General is expected to announce a commission to examine the case for an Australian Bill of Rights in December 2008, on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It will be next year's big controversy and a huge political decision for the Rudd government. This short book by Geoffrey Robertson QC is sure to become the primer for this debate. He puts the case for an Australian Bill of Rights cogently and dramatically, proving with evidence from other countries how a statute of liberty helps ordinary citizens and improves standards of governance and public services. He exposes the lies and urban myths the Australian people face from opponents of the bill, and shows how the charter he has drafted reflects the history and real contemporary values of Australians. This is a provocative argument for change, which explains that real democracy only exists if politicians give the courts power to defend citizens against abuses of their human rights by governments and public servants.
John Button Prize 2009 Shortlist
The Statute Of Liberty: How Australians Can Take Back Their Rights
$19.95 (Paperback book / Vintage )
The Australian people emerged from a polyglot mixture of nationalities and other races: a kind of human minestrone. Not only a race, but a race apart, thanks to the kindness of distance. What distinctive moral vision hav... More »
The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island
$32.95 (Trade paperback / Hamish Hamilton )
"...Chloe Hooper has more than done justice to a worthy story. She has produced an Australian classic." Robert Drewe, The Age
This is the story of Palm Island, the tropical paradise where one morning Cameron Doomadgee sw... More »
Review
Blind Conscience
$34.95 (Paperback book / Univ Nsw Pr )
This profoundly moving book reveals the untold story of the people who struggled to get asylum seekers out of detention and change government policy. Lateline journalist Margot O’Neill, who covered many of these stories ... More »
John Button Prize 2009 Longlist
The Henson Case
David Marr
Quarterly Essay 34: Stop At Nothing
Annabel Crabb
The Times Will Suit Them
Geoff Boucher and Matthew Sharpe
Denial: History Betrayed
Tony Taylor
Must Have History Now
Black Politics: Inside The Complexity Of Aboriginal Politics
$35.00 (Trade paperback / Allen & Unwin )
Drawing on extensive interviews with activists and politicians, Black Politics explains the dynamics of Aboriginal politics. It reveals the challenges and tensions that have shaped community, regional and national relati... More »
The Statute Of Liberty: How Australians Can Take Back Their Rights
$19.95 (Paperback book / Vintage )
The Australian people emerged from a polyglot mixture of nationalities and other races: a kind of human minestrone. Not only a race, but a race apart, thanks to the kindness of distance. What distinctive moral vision hav... More »
Je Suis Australienne Remarkable Women In France 1880 1945
$29.95 (Paperback book / Resources For The Future )
No extra details available for this item. More »
The Dreaming And Other Essays
$32.95 (Trade paperback / Black Inc )
This is a collection of work by W.E.H. Stanner, one of Australia's finest essayists. A superb anthropologist, he was both perceptive and prophetic about the Aboriginal people he knew; yet his work has been out of print a... More »