Just like Mary Poppins Greg advocates a spoonfull of sugar to help the medecine go down, but Greg's sugar is artifical with no nutrition at all. There is no reason to link a Bill of Rights with a national ID card - such a Bill would offer no more protection than that which obviously be enshrined in the ID card legislation.

Everytime a major rights issue comes up, be it ID cards, mandatory detention, anti-terror laws, censorship etc someone comes out to say if only we had a Bill of Rights we would all be safe. Well the UK,US and Zimbabwe all have Bills of Rights, so did Communist Russia and Nazi Germany. I know my rights are safer here than in any of those famous Bill of Rights fearing nations. Lets face it, legislation is an imperfect tool that is easily manipulated. Our only real protection comes from our politicians, our judicial system, and our own vigilance and participation.

Rancitas,you have answered you own question.We have no use for a Bill of Anything.It just gives the Lawyers more leverage.

Most of us carry with us many forms of ID cards, Medicare, Licence, Bankcard etc all recognised by signature. I could see that if one card contained all this plus Passport, Tax file Number and personal information like blood type, finger print, iris recognition etc it would make it more difficult to steal identity.

I am not happy with a Bill of Rights, because to define a right is to exclude the rights of some. This is a lawers dream - to define if a right has been denied. No Bill of Rights!

Wake up Australia!! The Australia Card (minus the photo.) is already law. The legislation was passed under the soothing name of "the upgraded tax file number" thanks to the vote of the then Shadow Treasurer, by name J. Howard. Since then we have seen the ABN number legislation and lastly the diabolical Privacy Act (aka the Publicity Act) - it's no longer possible for the private citizen to ring any business contact without being interrogated (prove your identity!) and recorded. The next steps can be foreseen:
• Street police randomly checking your reasons for not being within your Registered Postcode.
• Street police randomly checking your permit to visit your local milk bar.
• The 'National Tattoo" legislation. ("It's not an offence to refuse to tattoo your new infant, however we are obliged to euthanase said infant")
• The "National Radio Transmitter implant" legislation.

George Orwell must be turning in his grave - shades of "1984" !!.

My concern with a Bill of Rights is that I fear it could be used as an assault on our liberty.

If it guarantees so called "negative rights" such as:-

* Freedom of speech
* Freedom of association
etc

then it could be a good thing. However I worry that any serious debate would get hijacked by the left who would want it to provide so called "positive rights" such as:-

* Right to a job
* Right to education
* Right to health care
etc

These may be nice things but in my view they do not belong in a Bill of Rights or in a national constitution. And they create obligations not freedom.

Rather than a Bill of Rights I would propose we have a constitution amendement that makes specific a list of "Limits to Government Power". That way there would be no mistake that the intend was to restrict government rather than to enable or empower it

I think that we need neither an ID card nor a Bill of Rights - indeed, Barns' linking of the two concepts is in itself an argument against both.

Already we are seeing the rapid erosion of many of the rights we assume we have under Australian Common Law - stuff like freedom of association, the ability to travel on public transport unmolested by cops, sniffer dogs or wannabe cops (security or transport goons), or even to keep our shoes on at airports.

The blame for the increase in national paranoia that is the cover for these outrageous State intrusions into our individual liberties must be laid fairly and squarely at the feet of the Howard government, which has cynically deployed 'terrorism' and the bullsh*t 'war' against it since taking back the racist baton from Hanson's populist xenophobic party a few years ago.

I can hear the echo of jackboots in the streets of our cities already, accompanied by the snarls of police dogs and the despairing whimpers of civil libertarians. Lest we forget, eh?