Albrechtsen on a human rights act

Not a good idea to move power away from the legislature toward the (unelected) judiciary:

Let’s be clear. We are not talking about a campus campaign to save the whales. The introduction of a human rights act will alter the carefully calibrated balance of power in Australia between the legislature and the judiciary. And that single fact requires a detailed consideration of the consequences, not a T-shirt revolution.

The list of vaguely described rights in a charter will necessarily require judges to determine important social policy questions that we have traditionally entrusted to politicians to decide on our behalf, politicians who can be voted out of office if we disagree with them.

On matters of rights, where reasonable people can disagree, a handful of judges will decide the outcome. By any measure, that is a shift of power to judges away from the people.

From The Australian.

Oikophobia

Learned a new word today: oikophobia.

From here.

On the support Greens give to terrorists.

Christians versus fairies

In this opinion piece, Janet Albrechtsen hoes into the Democrats for their leader's attack on the idea of Christians in politics.

I knew a woman from a church I used to go to who used to be in the Democrats, and she was (and is) a Christian. Largely because of her I would have considered voting for the party. It was enough to make me take a serious look at their policies.

But nowadays about the only time I notice the Democrats is when they are campaigning for some anti-Christian initiative like getting rid of Scripture in schools. The internet poll they ran on this question earlier this year was a farce, and ended up getting pulled when they realized that too many Christians were voting in it. The results were never released.

Right...so you run a public poll to show people that you are interested in their opinions, you advertise its existence, and when you realize that the wrong sort of people are offering their opinions, you quietly hide both poll and results from public view.

On the evidence of this and of other statements I've read and heard from their current elected representatives, it seems to me that we are now dealing with a group of anti-Christian bigots. My former Democrat friend can hardly be impressed.