Random Note #174,734 — Rewrite Of Rights Badly Needed

Whether it be Attorney General George Brandis musing about the creative tension inside cabinet over the rule of law and how this extends to the rights of radicals or the statement by the officer in change at the inquest into The Lindt Cafe siege about the rights and welfare of Haron Man Monis being equal to those of his hostages we should all be deeply disturbed and concerned about the pattern of such inflexible and wooden thinking. We all understand rights in a general domestic law and order sense but Brandis and the academic elites and legal wonks seem to have little or no understanding that we are now in entirely new territory of an asymmetrical law and order maze where the radicals are creatively and ingeniously calling the shots and therefore aspects of the rule of law and how this applies to rights, have been upended and no longer apply. We are trying to fight a war with old tactics and out of date weaponry and urgently need a rethink and a rewrite of the rule book of rights, who they apply to, under what circumstances and when.