Fed: AG warns critics to check their facts
By Mike Hedge
MELBOURNE, April 17 AAP - Federal Attorney-General Daryl Williams today warned internationallawyers who criticised the government to check their facts.
In one of the closing addresses to the Commonwealth Law Conference in Melbourne, MrWilliams said some lawyers had delivered papers at the conference that painted an unfairpicture of the federal government.
While he declined to name the offenders, the most outspoken voice on Australian governmentpolicy at the conference was prominent Malaysian lawyer and human rights advocate KarpalSingh.
In a paper delivered yesterday, Mr Singh likened the government's human rights policyto that of former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
Mr Singh described the human rights records of some Commonwealth countries as "shockingand an affront to the conscience of mankind".
One such issue was Australia's treatment of the so-called stolen generation of Aboriginalchildren.
"Australia has to live down this blot on its human rights record," Mr Singh told the conference.
Calling on Prime Minister John Howard to apologise over the issue, Mr Singh said thepresent Australian government should take responsibility for the mistakes of its predecessors.
"Otherwise it would be no different to Pauline Hanson who inflamed racist sentiment
....when she said Australia was in danger of being swamped by Asians," he said.
The attorney-general warned critics of the government at the conference to check their sources.
"Some who have commented should be sure they have their facts right," Mr Williams said.
Mr Williams also chose a similar theme on which to end the conference as the one thatMr Howard chose to open it on Monday.
Both made strong reference to the situation in Zimbabwe, which had been the originalvenue of the conference.
"I can only but lament the continuing violation of basic human rights and the continuedsuspension in many respects of the rule of law in Zimbabwe by a government that holdsoffice as a consequence of a rorted election," Mr Howard said.
In his closing address, Mr Williams urged authorities in Zimbabwe to take the stepsthat would allow it to return to full membership of the Commonwealth.
The conference, which attracted some 1,300 delegates, heard from more than 200 speakersincluding some of the world's most prominent legal authorities.
It heard, among other things, that HIV/AIDS was a greater threat to the world thanterrorism, that Iraq could benefit from an Australian system of government and that theShane Warne drug case would have been best dealt with in a national sports court.
AAP mh/dk/ph/de
KEYWORD: LAW WILLIAMS
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