The Australia Together Podcast

In Episode 27 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 7 Part 3 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. In this section she explains that a single open space on the internet must be established to enable Australians to develop their national voice. This space must be an inclusive, well organised one where Australians are supported with information and data necessary to help them build and monitor their own integrated plan for their preferred future.

Bronwyn explains that an inclusive model for efficient operation of such a space already exists in state legislation that has been in place and working well in local government areas for more than a decade. This legislation for Integrated Planning and Reporting has enabled communities to form the terms of a social contract with their elected local councils and it has provided them with a means of holding councils accountable. It has also enabled communities to collaborate with councils on the best way to fund their plans at the lowest long run cost.

The evidence-based plans and reports that have arisen from this process have positioned Australians to do something with their democracy that has hitherto proved impossible – creating a full scale democracy that need no longer exclude the voices of its electors. It has enabled them to create terms of trust with the governments they elect.

Bronwyn finalises the section by showing that this system has been adapted by Australian Community Futures Planning for use at the national level and is now being pilot tested by ACFP.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

In Episode 26 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 7 Parts 1 and 2 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. In Part 1 she sets out how the mere process of voting does not give Australians a voice. In reality, the election system subverts and silences them - because they give away power to a tiny few without instructions as to its rightful use.

Elections under Australia’s current constitutional arrangements support the short term interests of the already powerful, not the long term interests of the powerless. They also tend in the main to subordinate the national interest to sectional interests. Bronwyn sets out evidence of this in the 21st century and then suggests that it is therefore "at the very least advisable to develop new political systems and a process which can enable Australians to ensure they can express with a coherent voice their aspirations for their wellbeing and security in the future."

A process reform is required to help Australians build their own long term integrated plan and this process must be enshrined in Australia’s Constitution as a human right if We the People are to be able to issue the coherent instructions our parliaments and governments will need if Australia is to track towards a future of wellbeing and security for all.

In Part 2 Bronwyn sets out what she means by a “national people’s voice”. Models for this sort of process are already available and have been working well in local governance for more than a decade. They are being adapted for use at the national level by Australian Community Futures Planning.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

In Episode 25 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 6 Parts 14 and 15 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. In Part 14 she reads a starting draft of a National Agreement on Human Rights and Obligations. This draft is offered to assist in community engagement and is therefore fully detailed. This makes it quite a complex amendment to the Constitution that may be difficult to follow unless a full transcript is provided. The full transcript is of course available in the book. But for the ease of the listener here is a link to the wording of the starting draft of The National Agreement on Human Rights and Obligations.

In the 15th and final part of Chapter 6 Bronwyn sets out why a National Agreement on Human Rights and Obligations that is made by the people in accordance with their stated values as a nation is essential to any true democracy.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

In Episode 24 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 6 Part 13 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. In this section she discusses how Australia has been served in the Uluru Statement from the Heart with the most plangent and entirely legitimate call for a coexistence of sovereignties. There is a major piece of unfinished business in our nation’s founding and until it is amicably solved Australia will be unable to lay claim to being a truly democratic and free country. She suggests that "Australians in the 21st century have slowly come to recognise that First Nations’ sovereignty has never been ceded and that therefore it is necessary, both in law and in conscience, to find a way to organise a new political and governance system so that these two sovereignties can coexist peacefully."

Bronwyn then suggests that the only way to establish a stable treaty with First Nations is for all Australians - Indigenous and non-Indigenous - to agree to confer all human rights and obligations equally on each other. To do this, Australians will need a process of constitutional reform that cannot be obstructed by the parliament. The benefits of such a process include establishment of a sound basis for lasting peace as well as the possibility of equal wellbeing for all peoples.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

In Episode 23 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 6 Parts 12 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. In this section Bronwyn examines the risk of enshrining in the Constitution all the human rights currently available in international law and all the attendant lawful obligations of governments to ensure Australians enjoy the full extent of those rights. She demonstrates that the risk of not enshrining rights and obligations in the Constitution is far greater than the risk of continuing to deny rights to Australians that the people of other nations already enjoy.

Australians enjoy some human rights, but they may only do so for as long as governments do not make laws against their rights. Considering the track record of removal of rights by Australian governments since 2002, people in Australia should not be complacent about their rights in the future.

Bronwyn lists more than 30 human rights that are currently at risk in Australia. She finalises Part 12 with a suggestion that the most effective and efficient way of overcoming these risks is to switch to a system where Australians do not wait for governments to confer rights on them. Instead they confer them equally and in full on each other by establishing in the Constitution a National Agreement on Human Rights and Obligations.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

In Episode 22 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 6 Parts 10 and 11 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. In Part 10 she outlines how Covid-19 has made Australians more aware of their need not just for civil and political rights but for economic, social and cultural rights. They are also aware of how easy it was for governments world-wide to spend trillions during the pandemic to put their economies on life support and how countries like Australia that have enormous per capita wealth can easily afford to support all the economic, social and cultural rights Australians need.

Australian governments have attempted to deny the rights of Australians and their obligations to us for decades but it is now apparent that this plainly abstemious mindset need not be the mindset for the future. The upshot of this is that Australians will only have themselves to blame if they continue to let governments off the hook in their obligations to us.

Bronwyn finishes by asking that, since affordability is not an issue, why should we deny ourselves rights that other nations have?

In Part 11 Bronwyn offers a practical option for enshrining the rights we need in the Constitution. This entails reversing the current permission system for conferring human rights on Australians. Instead of waiting for governments to finally grant rights to Australians, we can confer them equally on each other by establishing in the Constitution a National Agreement on Human Rights and Obligations.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

In Episode 21 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 6 Part 9 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. In this section she sets out how Australia’s Constitution almost entirely undermines the possibility of its citizens’ access to political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights. Because there is nothing in the Constitution which states what those rights are, federal courts are unable to protect Australians from abuse of their rights by governments.

Bronwyn points to the judgements of the High Court in this regard, judgements which indicate clearly that mere legislation is not sufficient to protect human rights. It must be done in the Constitution. Otherwise there is no balance of power that can be achieved. "No balance of power is possible if one of the powers (in this case the High Court) has no power at all under the only instrument that can give it power – the Constitution. The Court’s lesson is that only the people can solve this problem, via a long overdue referendum to insert human rights into the Constitution."

Bronwyn finishes by acknowledging that political barriers to this reform will be high but they are not insuperable.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

In Episode 20 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 6 Parts 7 and 8 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. She expands on how destructive mindsets in Australia’s governance - particularly the perceived need to counter threats of terrorism the desire of Australian governments to build support for war - are entirely perverse. They incline Australians to quietly consent to the loss of their rights and freedoms when it is absolutely not in their interests to do so. For instance, to be safe from war with those autocratic countries we have been told will take away our human rights, we have been tamed to give up our human rights, even before any war has started. However, she suggests that we have the means to reverse these destructive mindsets. This will involve placing those rights squarely on policy agendas as essential to the primary purpose of government – which is peace, not war. Enshrinement of human rights in a people’s constitution is the safest means of doing this. It can release Australians from the expense and the likelihood of destruction from war and also from climate change. 

Bronwyn concludes by advancing evidence that strongly suggests Australians are likely to be ready for a transition in national identity and cultural orientation away from a focus on war, war readiness, war heroism and death, and in favour of codification of human rights.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

In Episode 19 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 6 Parts 3, 4, 5, and 6 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. In this episode Bronwyn suggests that if Australia is to have a chance of reversing its record as an abuser of human rights we will need to examine what is causing the abuse. She suggests the poor record has largely been caused by three main destructive mindsets in our governance:

Destructive mindset No. 1 - The perceived need to counter threats of terrorism

Destructive mindset No. 2 - The desire to thwart native title claims

Destructive mindset No. 3 - The desire of Australian governments to build support for war

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

In Episode 18 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 6 Part 2 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. In this section she sets out how Australia has become a serial abuser of human rights. She lists a large number of abuses that have been evident in the 21st century. These abuses have become endemic due to the fact that Australia’s Constitution does not prohibit them.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com