On Tuesday 24th April 2012, La Trobe University politics lecturer Dr Nicholas Barry gave a guest presentation to first year Australian Politics: Government and Society students and University of the Third Age members at La Trobe University’s Albury-Wodonga campus on the bill of rights debate in Australia.   

In his presentation, Dr Barry discussed the concept of human rights and freedom of speech, then discussed the case for establishing a bill of rights in Australia.  He then compared the constitutionally entrenched United States model of a bill of rights with the statutory dialogue model, variants of which are practiced internationally in the United Kingdom and domestically in Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.

 DOWNLOAD AUDIO: Dr Nicholas Barry – The Bill of Rights Debate in Australia.mp3

A big thank you goes out to Nick for coming up to Albury-Wodonga and to everyone who participated in the seminar.

Bio: Dr Nicholas Barry’s research and teaching interests are in the areas of Australian politics and political theory. He is currently working on a defence of luck egalitarianism, which is a responsibility-sensitive, luck-insensitive theory of justice, and he is also examining the links between contemporary egalitarian theory and policy debates over disadvantage and welfare reform. Nicholas is also working on human rights protection in Australia, with a particular focus on the current debate over an Australian bill of rights. In addition to these projects, Nicholas has future work planned on the Australian Labor Party, political lobbyists, and the debate over justice and constructivism. He currently teaches units in Australian political institutions, public policy, human rights, and contemporary liberalism (and its critics).

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 The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of Our Voice: Politics Albury-Wodonga.

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