A Message Regarding Rights From an Australian to all Americans

I often see American ATS members complaining about their rights being violated by the ruling powers of their country. I do have a couple of things to say to those Americans who see that their rights are being violated:

1 - Your country is not the only one in the world which is engulfed by the corruption and oppressive/suppressive powers of those in the government. The oppression/suppression exists everywhere, in pretty much every country around the world.

2 - Stand up for your rights. You all are fortunate to live in a country which actually has a significant amount of laws to protect its citizens against violations of their rights. And while your government does intrude on some of your rights, they are still for the most part limited in doing so, due to the way in which your system works.

As an Australian, i say these things because we do not have a bill of rights. The rights us as Australians take for granted everyday are for the most part, not written into Australian law and do not exist in our constitution.

Effectively, the only rights Australian citizens have include the:

- Right to vote

- Right to trial by jury

- Right to just compensation

- Right against discrimination on the basis of out-of-State residence

In addition to the above rights of Australians, there are restrictions on what the government can actually impose on civilians:

- Freedom of Religion - (meaning that the Australian government can not impose any specific religion upon the people).

- Freedom of political communication - (This is only an implied right, meaning that it is not actually written into the Australian Constitution or Australian law).

While Australia has ratified many of the international human rights, it is not legally bound to them; meaning that 'the fundamental rights and freedoms of everyone living in Australia are not protected by the law.' In other words, the Australian government can, if it wanted to, break away from the International Declaration of Human Rights and impose specific restrictions on the rights of which Australians would not have otherwise (e.g. the protection of unlawful government seizure of personal property, the freedom of the press etc).

As of now, Australia is the only Western democratic country with neither a constitutional nor federal legislative bill of rights to protect its citizens.

As an Australian, i urge the Americans to stand up for their rights, and to think themselves lucky that they have a bill of rights which offer them a fair amount of protection from corrupt governmental forces.

- Daas.


www.nswccl.org.au...

www.theage.com.au...

www.aph.gov.au...

en.wikipedia.org...

www.aph.gov.au...

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

Dude, really? I'm Australian and I actually have zero idea of what you're going on about.
Don't like our country and its laws/freedoms then leave. AKA eff off we are full.

Originally posted by samuel1990
Dude, really? I'm Australian and I actually have zero idea of what you're going on about.
Don't like our country and its laws/freedoms then leave. AKA eff off we are full.

Take a while to fill up Australia wouldn't it? Just be thankful us poms packed you off there in the first place.

As a canuck I surely will give my best regards to the best behaved...I'm on the border of the winner
You bunch of mongrels,welcome to the club.

Originally posted by samuel1990
Dude, really? I'm Australian and I actually have zero idea of what you're going on about.
Don't like our country and its laws/freedoms then leave. AKA eff off we are full.

We can all tell you have zero idea what is happening.

Two party preferred voting system and we choose dumb or dumber.

Rather than get all twisted you should read and spend a little more time thinking

Originally posted by samuel1990
Dude, really? I'm Australian and I actually have zero idea of what you're going on about.
Don't like our country and its laws/freedoms then leave. AKA eff off we are full.

From one Australian to Another. Dude, your a retard.

Originally posted by samuel1990
Dude, really? I'm Australian and I actually have zero idea of what you're going on about.
Don't like our country and its laws/freedoms then leave. AKA eff off we are full.

Just because you are an Australian (just like me and a lot of the other posters here) does not mean you are educated about our constitution, and the fact that we lack a bill of rights (that is, a document detailing the rights of civilians to a specific country). I supplied links and sources of which you can read to understand just what i am getting at.

You completely misunderstood my topic. I love our country, because i am Australian. I would not want to live anywhere else. As for the laws and freedoms; i believe our country would be better if we had a guaranteed bill of rights, as it would limit the possibility of government corruption and violations. Further, it would be more effective in stopping the government from succumbing to oppressive actions if it ever did happen.

As for the "eff off we are full" comment of yours; it clearly shows off your character...

Need i say more?

This is one of those annoying 'you people' threads. Someone who is from an entirely different culture in another part of the world even, telling Americans how to run things. Mind your own.

Originally posted by Iamschist
This is one of those annoying 'you people' threads. Someone who is from an entirely different culture in another part of the world even, telling Americans how to run things. Mind your own.

So you imply that you do not want to stand up for your rights? All i done was urge Americans to stand up for their rights; rights which not everyone in the world (even fellow English speaking countries such as Australia) have.

I compared the rights of Americans to those of which Australians officially have. Americans are lucky that they have these rights, and as such, i urge them to fight to protect them. At least you all have something to fight for...

- Daas.

reply to post by daaskapital


Not really implying anything, saying don't give advice unless you are asked. We are the ones who put those rights in place so no worries. We can take care of ourselves thanks awfully. I can't speak for anyone but me, but I am glad we have those rights and don't take them for granted.

I LIKE YOUR POST.....

Finally a fellow Aussie who knows that we as Australians are not bound to the UN Human Rights Charter, and the effects this has on our legal rights.

This means "We do not have the right to a fair trial, nor do we have the right to refuse search and seizure".
Yes there are laws which outline the correct procedure in which an Australian Police Officer should legally obtain incriminating evidence, but if they violate these protocols there is nothing you can do, even IF they are caught on camera.

If you are arrested in Australia and the police do not read you your rights, they simply state in their paper work that they did, and their word is gospel. If you trip over while they are leading you away in handcuffs then an automatic "Hinder Arrest" is added to your charges.

You do not have the right of ANY phone calls during your incarceration.

If your rights are violated by the police while in custody, you cannot claim a technical fault and have the matter dismissed. The matter must be dealt with and if you win the case (unlikely) then you stand a better chance of pursuing a rights-violation case against the state. Again you are not likely to win.

Lets suppose somebody spiked your drink while at a nightclub and as a result you made an idiot out of yourself and got arrested.

When the matter is heard in front of the magistrate,
If you plead "NOT GUILTY" then YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CLAIM YOUR DRINK WAS SPIKED as a defence.

However

If you plead "GUILTY" then you can claim that your drink was spiked in order to reduce the sentence, and this will only be taken into account if you were previously of sound character. Meaning no priors.

In Australia you can only view the evidence against you if you plead "not guilty", and then if the prosecution have not produced the evidence which your solicitor has subpoenered the hearing still goes ahead despite the fact that your case is weaker in the absence of nullifying evidence.

I have a friend who has been charged with malicious damage to a police car, in which it was unable to be operated. The police CLAIM that my friend let the tyres down of the police car, and yet in a written statement by another officer, they claim that the police car had to get driven to a service station 5km away in order to pump the tyres up. The officer who made that statement did not record the inflation levels before or after inflating each tyre, but instead in his statement said "Yep they needed a bit of air".

The statements taken by 4 individual officers all state that the tyres were visibly deflated, yet they were able to drive it to a garage and get the tyres pumped up, and none of them had the brains to take a photo of the evidence. I assume they all had cameras on their phones. My friends solicitor who works for the Aboriginal Legal Service, subpoenered any/and all photographic evidence, statements, and all the paperwork generated by this case, and yet on the day of the REPLY TO BRIEF not a single piece of evidence had arrived.

My friend is Aboriginal, and despite an extensive, and expensive inquest into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody which require the police to automatically ring Aboriginal Legal Aid on his behalf, the police didn't and none of this can be argued at the hearing.

No rights were read. Violates Legislation.
No subpoenaed evidence submitted at Reply-to-Brief. UNKOWN if this Violates Legislation.
No Aboriginal Legal Service notified. Violates Legislation.
An alleged confession of guilt was taken without his solicitor present. Violates Legislation.
The vehicle was able to be driven to a service station.

All I am trying to say is, YES there is legislation which governs the actions of Australian Police Officers,
But NO, you do not have the right to contest any errors or breaches of protocol which led to your arrest and/or compiling of evidence during your trial, despite the fact that these errors may have violated your civil rights under The Human Rights Charter.

While Australia uses its UN member status to enforce the Human Rights Charter upon other nations, a detailed look into our legal system will reveal a completely different attitude towards our own citizen rights.

QUESTION TWO: ARE THESE HUMAN RIGHTS CURRENTLY SUFFICIENTLY PROTECTED AND PROMOTED? 79. The Bar Association considers that human rights are not currently sufficiently protected and promoted in Australia. The Bar Association supports the Law Council of Australia’s submissions at Part 2.5 which provides a comprehensive overview of deficiencies of the Australian legal system in the protection of human rights.

The above quote was from page 32 of THE NEW SOUTH WALES BAR ASSOCIATION SUBMISSION TO THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CONSULTATION

reply to post by Iamschist


As an AMERICAN - your attitude is exactly what is wrong with this country. We don't live in a vacuum. We need all the support we can get from the rest of the world. By WE I mean the people of the USA NOT the government!
Taking Daskapital's OP of encouragement out of context and criticizing the sentiment as none of his business is just what we'd call "red necked stupidity" even down here in Texas. To coin a phrase "SOD OFF".

ganjoa

reply to post by ganjoa


Sucking up to foreign critics is hardly helpful in fixing what ails us. You are entitled to your opinion as am I. "Sod off" is I believe an English phrase? Oh the irony.

reply to post by Iamschist

We are the ones who put those rights in place so no worries. We can take care of ourselves thanks awfully

With your TSA, Patriot Acts, NDAA, strangling your freedoms? I think you're just lashing out in frustration. By the way we will never in Australia have any basic freedoms. After all the governor general (ipso facto the Queen) is the real power in Australia.

reply to post by Iamschist


no what seems to ail the average us citizen is people like you the posters was talking about the fact we take for granted something that they dont even have and you want to criticize him for it what is wrong with you. On another note op a bill of rights wont really protect your rights look at us right now we are already bent over and just about to take it no lube if you get what im saying.

reply to post by Iamschist


It's great you caught the irony as intended.
Too bad you've continued to misjudge the OP's encouragement as criticism.

ganjoa