------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: "Bruce Reyburn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date sent: Wed, 5 Jul 2000 11:15:00 +1000 Subject: Ant-Genocide Bill - Aust Govt Failure Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Priority: normal DEMOCRATS CRITICAL OF AUSTRALIAN GOVT ON ANTI-GENOCIDE BILL We have received a copy of "Humanity Diminished: the Crime of Genocide" - the report of the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee's inquiry into the Anti-Genocide Bill 1999. A Songlines Movement made a short submission to this inquiry saying more time was needed by the wider Australian community to deal with the complex issues raised by genocide in the Australian context. Only 36 written submissions were received, which supports our request. RECOMMENDATIONS The Senate Committee's two recommendations are: 1. The Committee recommends that the Parliament formally recognise the need for anti-genocide laws. 2. The Committee recommends that the Bill be referred to the Attorney-General for consideration of the matters identified by the Committee in respect of its contents, and that the Attorney- General report his findings to the Parliament by 5 October 2000. SPECIAL NOTE - AUSTRALIAN GOVT ATTITUDE TO GENOCIDE Note that, in additional comments at page 56 Senator Brian Greig (Democrat) states: "The Australian Democrats note with great concern the failure of the Attorney-General and his Department to have meaningful input into this inquiry. The seriousness and importance of this legislation was not treated with the respect and diligence it deserved. No submission was received by the Committee from the Attorney- General on this matter and the wrong departmental officers were sent to meet with the Committee in Melbourne." (ends) UNFINISHED BUSINESS It would be appropriate to bring this failure by the present Australian government to those in the UK to 'celebrate' a century of Australian Federation. To contact the Australian Senate's Legal and Constitutional References Committee phone (02) 6277 3560 fax (02) 6277 5794 Bruce Reyburn Interim co-oridator Songlines Movement 5 July 2000 -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
