Canberra - The United Nations, Amnesty International, unions and church groups questioned Australia's commitment to human rights yesterday after it threatened to drop out of a UN committee system which champions rights.
Australia saw red this week when the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) again criticised its treatment of Aborigines, embarrassing the government months before the world spotlight turns on Sydney for the 2000 Olympics.
"We won't cop it any longer," the Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, said. "If a United Nations committee wants to play domestic politics here in Australia, it will end up with a bloody nose," he added.