Human rights being trampled in Australia, says former WA premier Geoff Gallop

Basic human rights are being trampled on by "authoritarian" governments in Australia in the absence of a federal bill of rights, former West Australian premier Geoff Gallop says.

Mr Gallop, in a speech to a Human Rights Arts and Film Festival forum in Perth today, said recent state laws - including confiscation of assets and unexplained wealth legislation - had "crossed the line" on people's rights.

Australia was the only democratic country without a bill or charter of human rights, leaving its citizens at the mercy of bureaucracies, Mr Gallop said.

"What's missing in Australia, compared to a lot of other countries, is a consciousness that human rights are important," he said.

"There are very few human rights enshrined in law in Australia - we're very light on human rights."

Mr Gallop said recent legislation in Australia, including WA's tough anti-hoon laws that have led to the impounding cars belonging to innocent parties, and asset-freezing laws that undermine the presumption of innocence, had gone "too far".

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"Some of those laws come very close, if not cross the line, on human rights and we need to expose that so we have a proper debate," he said.

"I think a charter of rights is designed to put a spotlight on those things, which is exactly what we need."

Mr Gallop said state governments had been put under pressure in recent times to get tough on crime, but had to be careful not to go too far.

"All governments are under pressure sometimes to push the executive power in the interests of the public," he said.

"(But) I think governments get too authoritarian.

"I really think, having been in government, you do need to have people question what you're doing, examining what you're doing - you need second opinions on things.

Mr Gallop told the forum at the University of WA that Australia still had "significant pockets of racism", "crude and nasty" populism and nationalism.

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