THE success of the medivac bill this week is a sign Australians have reached a "tipping point" on human rights, according to Gillian Triggs.
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The former president of the Australian Human Rights Commission made the comment at a forum in Wangaratta on Thursday night.
"I think we've actually reached what you'd call the tipping point, finally we're all starting to wake up," Professor Triggs said.
"These laws and policies, whatever we're talking about - the homelessness, the contemptuous dismissal of the Uluru Statement from the heart, women's issues and pay equality, equality of opportunity, the futures of our young people - along with the horror of asylum seeker treatment, I think the Australian public now are starting to say we must ask questions about this because this does not reflect the values that we stand for."
Professor Triggs was on a panel promoting Australia adopting a charter of rights.
Alongside her were Albury Anglican priest Father Peter MacLeod-Miller and Sydney-based Indigenous lawyer Teela Reid.
Professor Triggs said a legislated charter of rights was needed because politicians could not be trusted to safeguard freedoms.
"Now there are many in Australia who would say 'but we don' want that, in Australia we really believe in parliamentary supremacy'," she said.
"That makes sense to the average Australian, we've elected our political representatives and we expect them to exercise the usual presumption that parliament intends to comply with these fundamental human rights.
"But sadly the truth, at least for the last 18 years or so, has been that actually parliament is not to be trusted and the opposition parties have actually voted for the majority government of the day on some of the most egregious breaches of human rights."
Professor Triggs suggested a charter could be a single-page document suitable to pin-up on a fridge door.
Ms Reid said "hard core" legal reform was needed and there were situations "where we are going to have to treat each other differently".
"For example if you think about … a 100-metre race.
"You've got a white child in one lane and a refugee in another lane and a black child in another lane there will be a number of different hurdles for each of those children.
"So in terms of them each achieving, say for example, a right to education or a right to … experience or practice their culture they're going to have to jump different hurdles.
"(It) means as a society in terms of exercising and being accountable for those rights there are different things and different ways we're going to have to treat different people."
