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Senator Ted Kennedy and Human Rights in Australia

Jennifer Nash | 04.09.2009 04:18 | Education | Repression | World

The late Senator Ted Kennedy was an irreplaceable politician and his death is without doubt the end of an era. He was known as a champion for furthering civil rights and humanitarian matters inside and outside the US, as was his late sister, Eunice Kennedy-Shriver, who championed the Special Olympics for the mentally disabled over 40 years ago. People from countries where human rights are often ignored or not enshrined in the Constitution like they are in the United States, often contacted Mr Kennedy when everything else failed.



Australian citizen, Jennifer Nash, is one of many foreigners who contacted the late Senator on the issue of human rights abuses. She wrote to him in 2007 about civil rights abuses against her 12 year old son, who was a victim of severe school bullying and denied an education because of the bullying and education discrimination.

When the unrepresented boy sought redress on the human rights abuses, he and his mother were systematically abused and terrorised in Queensland’s shocking human rights court without a jury or even the faintest semblance of justice.

And with courtroom tapes and transcripts repeatedly edited to hide the judicial abuse and pervert the course of justice in demeaning, abusive and incredibly harrowing marathon hearings lasting up to 7½ hours as Ms Nash told former Brisbane Radio 4BC presenter Chuck Brooks  https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/media/2009/08/435571.mp3

Thomas Jefferson said, "I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."

Ms Nash is not alone in being extremely concerned about the ability of Queensland courts to deliver justice to victims of crime. There are many concerned and very unhappy Queenslanders and even international citizens.

“In an open letter to Queensland's Director of Public Prosecutions, Tina Watson's sister Alanda Thomas warns that Australia is at risk of becoming an international laughing stock over the deal, in which honeymoon scuba killer David "Gabe" Watson was dealt a 4½-year jail term, with a one-year minimum”.  http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25942582-3102,00.html

Jennifer Nash’s own state representative, former Labor Transport Minister, John Mickel refuses to acknowledge and represent her and her Australian born son as his local constituents and has repeatedly declined to advocate for the juvenile’s civil rights. He has even blocked her email address.

However, Ted Kennedy, in far away Boston did in fact respond quickly when Jennifer Nash wrote to him. He even summed up her concern and reason for writing to him as “human rights abuses”. Read Senator Kennedy’s letter online:  http://www.ctjnet.co.uk/CTJ%20Temporary%20Images/US%20Senator%20Letter.gif

In contrast, Australian Labor Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd has never mentioned “human rights abuses” and never acknowledged Ms Nash and her complaint about human rights abuses and judicial abuse and corruption against her and her son juvenile son. No one has ever publicly acknowledged the boy or dared mention that he is a victim of apprehended human rights abuses.

Not even Australian Human Rights Lawyers, who are only funded to advocate for accused criminals. And definitely not the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (hreoNOT), who (in a separate court application) denied the boy any legal youth advocacy vide The Rights Of The Child and insisted that the Federal Court of Australia complaint against hreoNOT and Juvenile Justice Queensland be dismissed, because it is against the law to make a complaint against a Queensland state department to hreoNOT! How convenient is that?

Ms Nash was speechless when she realised that hreoNOT’s human rights? lawyer, Christine Fougere, who had been specially flown in from Sydney, was charged with defending both hreoNOT and Juvenile Justice Queensland against the 12 year old.

Ms Fougere not only successful argued for the case to be dismissed because it was ‘illegal’, she further explained that she was under instruction from hreoNOT to seek a costs order against the unrepresented youth.

Did hreoNOT not realise that insisting on misapplying the law and insisting that the Federal Court of Australia apply the draconian, not to mention invalid and superseded 1851 (eighteen fifty one) Infants Law Act on legal costs against an unrepresented 12 year old bullied schoolboy, would only further undermine their standing and international credibility and dissuade the public?

Queensland Federal Court Judge, Geoffrey Spender dismissed the human rights complaint without costs against the boy, claiming he had to make decisions on the laws we have, not the laws we should have in a perfect world.

On 30 June 2009 Ms Nash personally hand delivered a letter to Mr Rudd when he gave a speech nearby. The mother then pleaded with Mr Rudd to finally address her issue and respond to the plight of her long suffering son.

Mr Rudd, a Queenslander from Brisbane has still not acknowledged her letter in writing but instead referred her letter to his Queensland Labor colleague and good friend, Premier Anna Bligh, who in turn again shirked all responsibility by referring the matter back to her Queensland Labor Attorney General, Cameron Dick.

Ms Bligh, the former Labor Education Minister had previously fobbed off the matter to her previous Labor Attorney General, Kerry Shine, who also refused to do anything. Mr Dick has refused to acknowledge the family’s phone calls and correspondence since he was sworn in March 2009.

Speaker of the House, John Mickel, ordered Ms Nash (his very own constituent) ejected from Parliament when she went there as a last resort to address him and Premier Bligh and ask why he would not represent the family as his local constituents.

Ms Nash was then violently ejected by armed police. The fact that Ms Nash spoke to the Parliamentary floor from the public gallery above for several minutes was not mentioned in the Hansard records. The incident was not televised and not accurately recorded in the Parliamentary Hansard records.

The Bligh government with a current approval rating of only 33% has banned television cameras from Parliament to ensure they can no longer capture and broadcast the issues of aggrieved and ignored citizens from the public gallery situated on the floor above.

Ms Nash’s parliamentary address has been suppressed and referred to as merely “an incident!” A very angry Mr Mickel in fact shouted repeatedly for police to “remove that person from the gallery” (his very own constituent).

The “honourable” Premier, Anna Maria Bligh’s final sentence of her long Parliamentary address on that very day, after which Ms Nash interjected from the public gallery, is poignant and incredibly ironic, because she talks about ... “protecting the ‘democratic freedoms’ that we exercise here in this chamber every sitting!”

In reality of course there is absolutely no “democratic freedom” and absolutely no freedom of speech in the Queensland Parliament, contrary to her statement.

The following is an extract of the relevant Parliamentary record:  http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/legislativeAssembly/hansard/documents/2009.pdf/2009_04_23_WEEKLY.pdf
Page 149 Hansard records of Queensland Parliamentary sitting of 23 Apr 2009
...”Hon. AM BLIGH (South Brisbane—ALP) (Premier and Minister for the Arts) (9.47 am): “...protecting the democratic freedoms that we exercise here in this chamber every sitting.”

An incident having occurred in the public gallery—

Mr SPEAKER: Order! Please remove that person from the gallery.
I call the honourable the Deputy Premier”...

Despite the above incident, the conservative opposition has declined to assist the family in any way, and has declined to raise their matter in Parliament on their behalf using Parliamentary privilege.

Opposition Leader, John-Paul Langbroek’s approval rating of only 34% is only one percent better than that of the current Premier.

However, Independent MP, Dorothy Pratt, (pictured above) from far away Kingaroy, has now stepped in and responded to Ms Nash by putting a question on notice on her behalf in Parliament on 20 August 2009.

Attorney General, Mr Cameron Dick now has 30 days to respond to the question in Parliament as under:

 http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/legislativeAssembly/tableOffice/documents/questions/2009/090820-QON.pdf
Page 7 Questions on Notice asked in Parliament on Thursday, 20 August 2009 (extract)

1020 MRS PRATT ASKED THE ATTORNEY–GENERAL AND MINISTER FOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS (MR C R DICK)—
With reference to allegations made by Jennifer Nash regarding her disabled son—
Why has the Attorney-General not acknowledged receipt of these allegations (including a signed and sworn statutory declaration corroborating her evidence) or corresponded with her about this matter?

Insiders have told Ms Nash not to expect an effective remedy or that the question would actually be properly addressed and fully answered, when it is due on or about the 18 September, as this almost never happens in Parliament!

Ms Pratt is the only Queensland politician to respond to the family’s plea for help. There are only four independent MPs in Queensland, which is dominated by the Labor Party and Liberal National Party and the only state without an Upper House in Parliament.

Jennifer Nash is very grateful to the late Senator Ted Kennedy and the Independent Member for Kingaroy for making representation on her behalf when her elected state and federal representatives failed to act repeatedly.

Ms Nash and her son were very sad to learn that Mr Kennedy has died. He was unique and a true champion for human rights and they respected him for his tireless work, dedication and interest in working for a fairer system and for improving people’s lives. It is unlikely there will ever be another politician like him.

Many people are unaware that Australia is now the only major English speaking country in the world without a bill of rights.

Despite often describing itself as a “democracy”, Australia has in fact no independent Human Rights Watch, no Judicial Watch, and no effective and independent civil rights NGOs. It is now considered a lightweight democracy at best.

“Australia, once a leader on the world stage of human rights, is failing to demonstrate true leadership. ...The leaders of today are proving to be poor successors to those who forged the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in 1948...” Amnesty International Australia  http://www.mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=616222

Australia’s media is not independent and there are no independent programmes such as for instance Leslie Dutton’s award winning Full Disclosure Programme, which can raise issues of human rights abuses when the lamestream media fails.

Amnesty International Australia is unable to comment on human rights abuses against Australian citizens in Australia. The public service in Queensland has become incredibly corrupted and anti civic.

Prompting 4BC Radio presenter, Michael Smith to start an online blog on Labor party cronyism and corruption:

“Tony Fitzgerald QC was right. The political system is corrupt in Queensland, we’ve slipped backwards. The public service isn’t supposed to be political. It’s supposed to provide service to the public”...  http://www.4bc.com.au/blogs/michael-smith-blog/corruption/20090814-ekj0.html

What sort of a country would expect a 12 year old boy to represent himself in a court environment, which can only be described as draconian and uncivilised?

And what sort of a country would tell a juvenile that the only way he can bring a human rights complaint is, if he can either afford to pay an independent legal team, or somehow find an unqualified and untrained person willing to represent him pro bono against aggressive, very experienced and well trained top Barristers and Crown Law Solicitors?

"Equal treatment before the law is a pillar of democratic societies. When courts are corrupted by greed or political expediency, the scales of justice are tipped, and ordinary people suffer. Judicial corruption means the voice of the innocent goes unheard, while the guilty act with impunity" Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International.

Canberra has published Jennifer Nash’s email complaint about human rights abuses and judicial abuse and corruption following the National Human Rights Consultation’s invitation to make an online submission, without investigating any of her allegations.
 http://www.humanrightsconsultation.gov.au/www/nhrcc/submissions.nsf/list/5E0799BDB1BC2E6FCA25760B0009B69D/$file/Jennifer_Nash_AGWW-7QCT6Q.pdf

Canberra Professor of Law, Margaret Thornton says Australia’s “attitude to human rights seems to befit colonial times.”

Due to lack of press freedom Jennifer Nash’s true story and her corroborated allegations of judicial abuse and corruption has never been reported in Australia, but has reached foreign media, including The Wall Street Journal, which has published her articles several times. Mathaba has given actual coverage to this case on several occasions.

Further details and coverage:

Governor of Queensland’s charade and judicial corruption denial continues
 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/21/770060/-Governor-of-Queenslands-charade-and-judicial-corruption-denial-continues-

QLD Governor Silent on Judicial Corruption Claims Against Brother  http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=621126

Human Rights Commission defends regime – not youth  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/424195.html

How the Federal Court of Australia selectively denies The Rights Of The Child  https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/05/430998.html

Let the People Elect Judges  http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=555335

Australia’s lone stance against civil rights bill:how juristocracy enables this and blocks debate  http://www.mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=616222

Australia Day advertisement an insult to our intelligence  http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=554768

Attorney General misleads the people
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/424062.html

Bullied schoolboy wants Anna Bligh to address judicial corruption  http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/02/386941.shtml

Kevin Rudd and Robert McClelland must address judicial corruption  http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/03/225156.php

Bullied schoolboy wants Kevin Rudd to address judicial corruption  http://www.mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=618292

Supreme Court 'orders bullied schoolboy to pay costs’
 http://mathaba.net/news/?x=572486

Armed Police Eject Mother From Queensland Parliament
 http://mathaba.net/news/?x=620379

QLD Governor Wensley Silent On Judicial Abuse
 http://mathaba.net/news/?x=620047

Speaker Of Queensland Parliament Denies Bullied Schoolboy Electoral Representation  http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=96654





Jennifer Nash
- e-mail: jennifernash10@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.ctjnet.co.uk/cajc.htm

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