'Rights reluctance': utilitarianism and the future of human rights in Australia

In late 2001, the Standing Committee on Law and Justice handed down its findings from an inquiry into whether NSW should enact a statutory Bill of Rights. Despite major concessions on the inadequacies of the protection of rights in NSW, the Committee held that it was not in the public interest for NSW to enact a statutory Bill of Rights. Megan Davis argues that this comes as no surprise in light of the utilitarian approach to human rights dominant in Australian public life