Government News Index
Howard slams pursuit of individual rights
By Scott Hannaford
AUSTRALIANS are taking individual rights to demented lengths and will have to scale down their expectations of those rights, according to Prime Minister John Howard.
Mr Howard said Australian society needed to take a good hard look at its attitudes on suing for damages if it still wanted to enjoy a variety of community and voluntary events.
"I think we need to get some perspective back into our lives. The idea that there should be an expectation of unlimited public accident coverage for a charitable event has brought a sense of unreality into our daily lives which I find quite appalling," Mr Howard told Parliament.
"Because of the growth of this litigious mentality in our society, people's expectations have been ratcheted up. We have to scale our expectations down.
"We cannot . . . be a society that pursues individual rights and personal liberties to demented lengths, but in the next breath expects to be able to conduct time-honoured charitable and volunteer activities without let or hindrance or any danger or threat of litigation."
Mr Howard, himself a lawyer, also took a stab at the legal profession, saying it had been a disastrous mistake to allow lawyers to advertise and tout for personal accident business.
Democrats Senator John Cherry said Mr Howard and Small Business Minister Joe Hockey had missed the point by focusing on lawyers.
Mr Cherry said the reason insurance premiums had gone up was due to market forces and not a huge increase in the number of claims, as stated by the Government.
He said a report by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority showed the number of claims was decreasing, and called for a special insurance fund to be set up to cover sporting and community groups.
The Democrats will take their proposal to the national summit on public liability insurance on March 27.
Canberra Times