A magistrate responsible for one of largest geographic jurisdictions in Australia has provided a Canberra conference with a grassroots perspective of protecting human rights.
The three-day human rights consultation talkfest, which wound up on Friday, heard from government ministers, lawyers, activists, academics and an asylum-seeker among others.
But it took Kalgoorlie magistrate Elizabeth Langdon to remind the conference of realities at the sharp end of life in outback Western Australia.
A serious lack of social services in remote areas meant she struggles to protect the rights of victims and offenders.
In her district, which includes indigenous communities near the Northern Territory border, Aboriginal people made up 7.5 per cent of the population.
But they represent the vast majority of offenders who come before her court.
Most of them were addicted to petrol sniffing and came from backgrounds of disadvantage where there was housing overcrowding, transience and homelessness.
"The lack of provision of adequate resources impedes my ability to protect human rights for victims of crime and offenders," Ms Langdon told the conference.
"If a chronic young petrol sniffer cannot remain in a family home ... the only alternative for me is to detain them in a detention centre ... almost 2,000 kilometres away," she said.
Even if legislators introduced a charter of human rights, those rights would never be truly protected without "adequate and meaningful resources".
Earlier former federal justice minister Bob Debus said a bill or charter of rights would fill "substantial holes" in the protection of human rights.
He stressed the power of judges would not change significantly if a charter was enacted.
There are concerns, especially from the Australian Christian Lobby, that judges will be given too much power to determine moral and social policy under any charter.
Mr Debus, who served as NSW attorney-general from 2000 to 2007 and justice minister in the Rudd government, says the shift in power to protect human rights from parliament to the judiciary will be "slight".
"What judges are asked to do under a charter of rights is little different to what they are asked to do in many other circumstances," Mr Debus told the conference.
It would also help harmonise the different anti-discrimination laws around the country, he said.
The federal opposition does not support a bill of rights.
In a submission to the committee, its legal affairs spokesman George Brandis said a bill of rights "could prejudice democratic governance and the separation of powers".
The National Human Rights Consultation Committee is preparing a report on the protection and promotion of human rights in Australia.
The report will be delivered to the Rudd government next month.
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