ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the warning that human rights are diminished when the people seek to cure democratic deficiencies by anti-democratic devices. It talks about the articulation of alternative political and constitutional strategies for improving the human rights performance of democratic systems without resort to an enlargement of the law-making power of courts. The chapter outlines why democracies require to be engaged with human rights. It identifies the human rights problems of modern democracies and the deficiencies of fashionable human rights regimes, before going on to suggest ways these may be addressed by cultural and constitutional changes build on the strengths of the Australian political tradition. The chapter focuses on the idea of developing the role and powers of the Parliament in promoting human rights protection. A democratic bill of rights is an Australian alternative to court-centred bills of rights with greater potential to realize tangible and lasting human rights outcomes.
