Again: positive rights are a dumb idea. So is being nice to some people.

Except the current campaign in Australia is being run by people whose agenda is far, far beyond these basic rights against and arbitrary and capricious state stomping on an individual’s liberty. You don’t have to read these people for very long before you see how plainly is their aim to implement socialism, even communism, by charter. Truly scary.

But none of these rights is absolute or unconditional; and the courts will nevertheless still have to interpret whether they have been satisfied or not in the circumstances. Charters of Rights are generally imagined to be magic bullets that are better at preserving our present freedoms then either common and statute law, but they simply aren’t.

I am surprised by how ambivalent I have become about an Australian Bill of Rights. I still do believe our Constitution needs some significant improvements.

But I was stunned at the cynicism of this extremely small clique of law academics and NGOs who out of nowhere stole the agenda for themselves, and repackaged it as a legislative Charter of Rights. This group acts like modern day carpetbaggers.

The 2 most objectionable features of the current Charter movement are:

1. It presumes an off-the-rack approach is preferable to an Australian grass roots approach. They have just downloaded 1, and sometimes 2 and 3 or more, UN Conventions, and now agitate that these should be Australia’ Charter of Rights.

2. It is a nonsense for parliament – and indeed, the current executive – to presume to enact a Bill of citizen’s rights against that very same parliament and executive. Poachers and gamekeepers come to mind.

I now I am not a supporter of this mooted legislative Charter of Rights, at least not while the current dodgy clique of carpetbaggers are running the agenda.

I am particularly offended that they can so brazenly say “it will be just another law, like any other”.

But we don’t want another LAW. we wants RIGHTS. “Rights” are a whole other – higher – level than mere “laws”. Even the carpetbaggers’ own model legislative Charters insist that every other law in the land be subject to the “rights” in this charter. So, right from the get-go, they are brazenly lying to us.