Public Posturing - Private Cowardice

McGinty’s Bill of Rights

When reading that Jim McGinty was touting a Bill of Rights, the Desert Rat’s whiskers twitched and he was overcome by a simultaneous feeling of both amusement and nausea.

Of course the Australian Labor Party would need to be exempt. Rats, like Caucus members - should also be protected - from snakes and birds of prey that make life stressful and dangerous for harmless creatures.

The public posturing by McGinty on a Bill of Rights, belies a private cowardice when it comes to defending those rights; even within his own Party.

In his public posturing about the rights of Western Australian citizens and the need for a Bill of Rights, Jim McGinty said

"A lot of people are shocked when they find out that in WA, basic human rights such as the right to a fair trial, freedom of expression, the right to protection from torture or degrading treatment and the right to privacy are not protected by law.'

"The creation of a WA Human Rights Act would mean that certain rights would have to be considered and observed by all levels of government.''

Darryl Wookey, Maxine Murray, Joe McDonald and Julian Grill would all be dumbfounded by the hypocrisy of these statements.

It is a bit like Hitler saying Jews, gypsies and homosexuals should have basic human rights while he ships them off to the death camps, or Stalin defending the freedom and private property rights of the Ukrainian Kulaks, while he confiscates their farms and wipes 7 million of them off the face of the earth.

McGinty showed his private cowardice when he failed to defend fellow unionist Joe McDonald’s expulsion from the ALP. Was McDonald, a former union comrade-in-arms, given the opportunity to put his case? Wasn’t he denied basic natural justice – to be able to answer his detractors before being summarily expelled from the ALP. Here is a blatant case of human rights being ignored for political expediency.

Julian Grill was expelled from the ALP in a similar manner. He was not given the opportunity to put his case – because his detractors knew they would probably have been humiliated. When these rights were denied, what protestations were heard from McGinty the erstwhile Bill of Rights promoter and defender of natural justice and basic human rights?

Grill was hauled before the Legislative Assembly and found guilty of contempt without being given an opportunity to put his case or respond to his detractors. Where again was McGinty the defender of human right and natural justice? Expediency seems to give way to principle each time.

Powers which our Attorney General does not even use to tackle organised crime, are used against ordinary citizens and have never been used to my knowledge against anyone in the Left of the ALP.

The powers McGinty has given to the Corruption and Crime Commission are the type of power George Bush would sanction and promote. Many of the powers have parallels in Bush's notorious Patriots Act.

McGinty’s support for draconian power is not new. Have a close look at the Prostitution Bill 1999 which McGinty supported, where totalitarian-state type powers were given to police to tackle a few street prostitutes - powers that weren’t available for police to tackle organised crime. Organised crime carried on with immunity in this state.

McGinty is an enigma, he publicaly postures about human rights and natural justice, but hasn’t the courage or will to defend abuses of those rights. Some would say he has actively supported the denial of those rights.

The ALP denied people basic rights during the 1950’s and 60’s. In recent years, it has slipped back into old habits and recently got shamelessly worse.

The late Kim Beasley Snr constantly fought off efforts to expel him in the 1950’s and 60’s because he belonged to Moral Rearmament. A movement opposed by the anti-religious, socialist left atheists. Kim Beasley snr wasn’t even one of those dreaded Catholics who were despised by the ALP Left in the 1950 and 60's because their anti-communist stance.

Keith Dowding Snr and a blind lawyer John Henshaw were also expelled from the ALP. The crime of both men was to oppose the White Australia Policy strongly supported by the “enlightened” unions.

Others like Dr John Troy, who was dis-endorsed from the safe seat of Fremantle because he supported the Palestinian cause. He just wanted some balance in the ALP approach. The recent sacrifices to political expediency are a throwback to a rather sick era.

The citizens most in need of a Bill of Rights are the dwindling membership of the Australian Labor Party.