Lip Service
Anthony Albanese
Prime Minister-elect Anthony Albanese’s victory speech in full
I have put forward a positive, clear plan for a better future for our country. And I have shared the two principles that will a government that I lead. No one left behind because we should always look after the disadvantaged and the vulnerable. But also no one held back because we should always support aspiration and opportunity. That is what my government will do. That is the what, but the how is also just as important because I want to bring Australians together.
The people of Couran Cove feel left behind, we need water, we can't survive without it... please hear our pleas for help.
I want to seek our common purpose and promote unity and not fear and – optimism, not fear and division. It is what I have sought to do throughout my political life. And what I will bring to the leadership of our country. It is a show of strength to collaborate and work with people, not weakness.
We fear being homeless, we fear that there will be a fire and there will be no water to stop it, we fear the government will do nothing to help us.
And I can promise all Australians this – no matter how you voted today, the government I lead will respect every one of you every day. And I’ll seek to get your vote next time.
Please respect us, please fulfil the governments obligation under international treaties (ICESCR) to protect our right to water and ensure if the future, under no circumstances shall an individual be deprived of the minimum essential level of water. How many times do we need to beg for our fundamental human rights? Your promises are starting to smell as bad as our toilets which haven't been flushable in over a year.
I said I’ve been underestimated my whole life during the campaign. Now while all that is true, I have also been lifted up by others who saw something in me. And who encouraged me in life on this journey. And I pledge to the Australian people here tonight, I am here not to occupy the space, but to make a positive difference each and every day.
Some of us believed in and supported you, we underestimated your level of apathy to our suffering.
Friends, we have made history tonight. And tomorrow, together, we begin the work of building a better future. A better future for all Australians.
We would like a better future, it's only gotten worse for us. Turning on the tap would be a nice start. Oh how we took a glass of water and the flushing of a toilet for granted, so many have been forced from their home for lack of a glass of water. The disabled, the elderly, children, everyone.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Reporting under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Australia is a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). By ratifying a treaty, a country voluntarily accepts legal obligations under international law. Australia's obligations under ICESCR include regular reporting requirements.
Why are we not fulfilling all obligations? Like the obligation to protect the human right to water and to ensure under no circumstances shall an individual be deprived of the minimum essential level of water?
The Attorney General
Right to an adequate standard of living, including food, water and housing
What is the right to an adequate standard of living?
Everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living including adequate food, water and housing and to the continuous improvement of living conditions.
Why doesn't everyone include hte people of Couran Cove? Can we be included in everyone please? It would be mighty kind of you.
Where does the right to an adequate standard of living come from?
Australia is a party to seven core international human rights treaties. The right to an adequate standard of living is contained in article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
The CRC requires countries to take appropriate measures to provide adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking-water to combat disease and malnutrition, and to assist parents and others responsible for the child with regard to nutrition, clothing and housing.
The CRPD requires countries to take appropriate measures to ensure clean water services and public housing programs for people with disability.
CEDAW requires measures to be taken to ensure that women in rural areas enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relation to housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply.
When do I need to consider the right to an adequate standard of living?
You will need to consider the right to an adequate standard of living if you are working on legislation, a policy or a program that:
• could be relevant to the supply of water for personal and domestic uses
• could be relevant to the availability of adequate food, water and housing for particular classes of persons, such as Indigenous persons or people with disability
In addition, you will need to consider the right to an adequate standard of living if you are working on legislation, a policy or a program dealing with economic and resource issues that could have an impact on the realisation of the right to an adequate standard of living. Legislation governing the entitlement to social security benefits is an example.
Water
The UN Committee has stated that the human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses, including consumption, cooking, personal and domestic hygienic requirements. Water, and water facilities and services, must be affordable for all.
We have to travel by boat to the main land to get water, without a ferry anymore, that can cost $100 each way. Water is not affordable or accessible. We can't at all carry a sufficient quantity. A shower for domestic hygienic requirements? Some of us barely remember what one of those is.
Housing
The UN Committee has stated that housing must provide adequate shelter, which means adequate privacy, space, security, lighting and ventilation, basic infrastructure and location with regard to work and basic facilities, all at a reasonable cost. Everyone should have sustainable access to natural and common resources, safe drinking water, energy for cooking, heating and lighting, sanitation and washing facilities, means of food storage, refuse disposal, site drainage and emergency services.
Water? None. Energy for cooking? None. Heating and lighting? None. Sanitation and washing facilities? None. Food storage? A fridge? None. Site drainage? If only we could flush the toilet... Where did I put that bucket?
Where can I read more about the right to an adequate standard of living? Other materials
UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights General Comment No 15 (on the right to water)
Can the right to an adequate standard of living be limited?
Article 4 of ICESCR provides that countries may subject economic social and cultural rights only to such limitations 'as are determined by law only in so far as this may be compatible with the nature of these rights and solely for the purpose of promoting the general welfare in a democratic society'. The UN Committee has stated that such limitations must be proportional, and must be the least restrictive alternative where several types of limitations are available, and that even where such limitations are permitted, they should be of limited duration and subject to review. Measures that are retrogressive to the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights must also be properly justified. A retrogressive measure is one that reduces the extent to which an economic, social and cultural right is guaranteed.
They also say "under no circumstances shall an individual be deprived of the minimum essential level of water", can we have our water back now please.
What other rights and freedoms relate to the right to an adequate standard of living?
The UN Committee has stated that the right to an adequate standard of living, and in particular to adequate food and water is necessary to ensure environmental hygiene (the right to health - article 12 ICESCR). Water is essential for securing livelihoods (right to gain a living by work - article 6 ICESCR) and enjoying certain cultural practices (right to take part in cultural life - article 15 ICESCR).
The right to adequate housing is relevant to the right not to be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with one's privacy, family, home or correspondence, in article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
I remember water...
When do I need to consider the right to health?
You will need to consider the right to health if you are working on legislation, a policy or a program that:
• relates to access to basic shelter, housing and sanitation, and an adequate supply of safe and potable water
Were they considered every time we begged for help? You could consider them going forward. We're still begging.
Why cover these rights so heavily if you will refuse to address related violations? How long do we need to beg?
Australian Human Rights Commission
Is there a right to housing?
Every person has the right to an adequate standard of living, which includes the right to adequate housing (ICESCR, article 11).
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - Human rights at your fingertips
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Article 11
1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent.
An Australian Conversation on Human Rights
Free & Equal
Right to adequate standard of living
(1) Every person has the right to access adequate housing.
(2) No one may be unlawfully or arbitrarily evicted from their home.
(3) Everyone has the right to have access to adequate food, water and clothing.
Where is our right to water? We've been without it for a year and you refuse to help in any way. Is this a sick joke?
(a) Nature of ICESCR rights
Ensure access to basic shelter, housing and sanitation, and an adequate supply of safe drinking water;
Ensure access to a social security scheme that provides a minimum essential level of benefits that cover at least essential health care, basic shelter and housing, water and sanitation, foodstuffs, and the most basic forms of education.
Right to health
The right to health contains the following interrelated and essential elements:
Physical accessibility: health facilities, goods and services must be within safe physical reach for all sections of the population, especially vulnerable or marginalised groups, such as Indigenous populations. Accessibility also implies that medical services and underlying determinants of health, such as safe and potable Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take steps, individually and through international assistance and co-operation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures. The principle of progressive realisation is ‘a necessary flexibility device, reflecting the realities of the real world’.25 It recognises that some obligations need time to be implemented, and enables government discretion in relation to resourcing priorities and policy choices, within a rights-framework.26 120 water and adequate sanitation facilities, are within safe physical reach, including in rural areas.
How healthy can one be without access to water for drinking, cleaning, or sanitation? Even the Romans had better access to water than us.
https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/free_equal_hra_2022_-_main_report_rgb_0_0.pdf
Social Justice Report 2005 :
Part 1: Normative content of Article 12
11. The Committee interprets the right to health, as defined in article 12.1, as an inclusive right extending not only to timely and appropriate health care but also to the underlying determinants of health, such as access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, an adequate supply of safe food, nutrition and housing, healthy occupational and environmental conditions, and access to health-related education and information, including on sexual and reproductive health. A further important aspect is the participation of the population in all health-related decision-making at the community, national and international levels.
(b) Accessibility. Health facilities, goods and services have to be accessible to everyone without discrimination, within the jurisdiction of the State party. Accessibility has four overlapping dimensions:
• Physical accessibility: health facilities, goods and services must be within safe physical reach for all sections of the population, especially vulnerable or marginalized groups, such as indigenous populations. Accessibility also implies that medical services and underlying determinants of health, such as safe and potable water and adequate sanitation facilities, are within safe physical reach, including in rural areas.
Core obligations
To ensure access to basic shelter, housing and sanitation, and an adequate supply of safe and potable water;
Where can we apply for this?
Appendix 4: An overview of the right to the highest attainable standard of health
Part 3: Violations
47. In determining which actions or omissions amount to a violation of the right to health, it is important to distinguish the inability from the unwillingness of a State party to comply with its obligations under article 12. This follows from article 12.1, which speaks of the highest attainable standard of health, as well as from article 2.1 of the Covenant, which obliges each State party to take the necessary steps to the maximum of its available resources. A State which is unwilling to use the maximum of its available resources for the realization of the right to health is in violation of its obligations under article 12. If resource constraints render it impossible for a State to comply fully with its Covenant obligations, it has the burden of justifying that every effort has nevertheless been made to use all available resources at its disposal in order to satisfy, as a matter of priority, the obligations outlined above. It should be stressed, however, that a State party cannot, under any circumstances whatsoever, justify its non-compliance with the core obligations set out above, which are non-derogable.
Inability? The tap was turned off, the infrastructure is there. It's just legal red tape. Is the State unwilling to use the maximum of its available resources for the realization of the right to health? It seems so. Is that in violation of its obligations under article 12? It seems so. The infrastructure is there, the people are willing to pay for its operation, the only thing stopping it is legalese.
49. Violations of the right to health can also occur through the omission or failure of States to take necessary measures arising from legal obligations. Violations through acts of omission include the failure to take appropriate steps towards the full realization of everyone's right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the failure to have a national policy on occupational safety and health as well as occupational health services, and the failure to enforce relevant laws.
Violations of the obligation to protect
51. Violations of the obligation to protect follow from the failure of a State to take all necessary measures to safeguard persons within their jurisdiction from infringements of the right to health by third parties. This category includes such omissions as the failure to regulate the activities of individuals, groups or corporations so as to prevent them from violating the right to health of others; the failure to protect consumers and workers from practices detrimental to health, e.g. by employers and manufacturers of medicines or food; the failure to discourage production, marketing and consumption of tobacco, narcotics and other harmful substances; the failure to protect women against violence or to prosecute perpetrators; the failure to discourage the continued observance of harmful traditional medical or cultural practices; and the failure to enact or enforce laws to prevent the pollution of water, air and soil by extractive and manufacturing industries.
https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/publications/social-justice-report-2005-1
Why cover these rights so heavily if as you continually state, such rights are not covered by the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld)? You infer that this is a right you care about, but when asked for help, when begged for help, turn the people away, stating you primarily work on acts of discrimination. Why mislead the people?
Queensland Health
Human rights
Some of the human rights Australians are entitled to include the right to:
• an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, clothing and housing
https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0029/650594/LG-work-within-rehab-env.pdf
The rights that continue to be ignored while good people suffer.