Who needs a Bill of Rights when you’ve got talkback radio?
Quote from the Prime Minister, John Howard, at a lunch celebrating 40 years of talkback radio on July 30, 2007, by Annabel Crabb in the SMH on July 31, 2007.
”I am, as you know, a strident opponent of the view that this country should have a bill of rights … I think that when you start writing rights down you probably end up circumscribing people’s rights,” he said.
He said there were three things in Australia that obviated the need for a bill of rights; vigorous parliamentary system, an incorruptible judiciary, and a free media. And there is nothing quite so free, when it comes to the media in this country, as talkback radio.”
Who needs a bill of rights when you’ve got Lawsie?” asks Annabel