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While move on orders could theoretically promote community safety, the flaws outlined above mean that, in practice, they promote a mere sense of it. In fact, the manner in which they are often issued leads to further harm, disproportionately made against marginalised groups, cementing adversarial relationships with the police, promoting intolerance and, ultimately, failing to address underlying social issues that lead to unfavourable conduct
Read MoreCitizenship is not a license that expires upon misbehaviour...The deprivation of citizenship is not a weapon the government may use to express its displeasure at a citizen's conduct however reprehensible that conduct may be.
Read More“ Criminalising chants with harsh jail terms in respect of the biggest public protest issue since Vietnam is up there with other excesses of the Bjelke -Petersen government, “ Mr. O’Gorman said.
Read MoreThe QCCL condemns the statement of the police minister Mr Purdie that “the hate speech laws would criminalise phrases that led to people being murdered at Bondi” as not only unsupported by any evidence but as tending to undermine the moral responsibility of the bigots who perpetrated the mass murder at Bondi.”
Read MoreCitizenship is not a license that expires upon misbehaviour. Could a citizen be deprived of her nationality for evading tax or murder? And one of the basic rights of a citizen is to return home,” says QCCL President Michael Cope
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This Bill with its current poorly researched and consultation non existent background will inevitably have consequences in practice that have not even been apparently considered by the closed door policy formulation process
Read MoreThe fundamental principle of freedom of speech in Australia, the UK and the US is that “ causing offence “ is an inevitable result of maintaining freedom of speech principles and rights.
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The Council has, at all times, been opposed to the disenfranchisement of prisoners. The concept of the civil dead no longer has any place in our law. Prisoners are human beings and ought to be treated with dignity. They are in prison as punishment not for punishment.
Read MoreThe Bill will fundamentally rework and expand hugely hate speech laws as well as having the 2026 equivalent of the 1950s ban of the Communist party which was struck down by the High Court. It is simply performative politics.
Read MoreThe atrocities at Bondi necessitate a response that will address the causes of violence and increase harmony. The NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Liberty Victoria and Queensland Council for Civil Liberties condemn the proposed Bill due to its remarkable impact on human rights and civil liberties, and because there is no evidence that it will make any of us safer.
Read MoreJustice Wilson’s report was published in June 2023. Whilst your government has been in office for only just over 12 months, we have no doubt that the bureaucracy has been working on this topic since the report was released. In our submission this matter requires urgent attention.
Read MoreThe QCCL does not endorse the tenets of national socialism in any way. However, we have concerns about members of a criminal law enforcement agency taking action to ‘disrupt’ the lawful conduct of members of the Australian community because the conduct is denominated a ‘threat to social cohesion.’
Read MoreAcknowledging then that the government has a legitimate interest in combating fire ants, that interest must be weighed against the fundamental interests protected by the right to privacy and particularly access to private property in the form of a person’s house.
Read MoreIssues relating to free speech have become more intense in recent years, given the increasing moral panic about social media and related issues.
Read MoreIt is positive to see that reviews and inquiries into Australia’s surveillance landscape have reached similar conclusions to our own - that is, surveillance power lack proper transparency and oversight, and that is particularly concerning given Australia’s lack of enforceable human rights laws.
Read More"It is unjust to treat equals unequally; it is equally unjust to treat unequals equally." – Aristotle The “Adult Crime, Adult Time” legislation is unjust as it treats children equally to adults with whom children are unequal.
Read MoreOur central submission is that the current definition should not be expanded. Terrorism should not be seen as a ‘catch-all’ term for serious crimes. The criminal law, with its established principles of criminal justice and procedure, already accommodate crimes which may constitute terrorism. Any further extension of the definition of terrorism would intervene in this system. It would enlarge the application of a wide set of powers that are both repugnant to civil liberties and inconsistent with these established principles of criminal justice
Read MoreIt is submitted that the entire scheme of Controlled Operations in the PPRA should be incorporated into the Bill for the same reasons that the Controlled Operations regime was originally incorporated into the PPRA.
Read MoreIn democratic polities, intelligence organisations have been permitted to operate in secret and without the public accountability mechanisms that apply to police because they neither produce evidence, nor exercise coercive powers. Division 3 departs from this principle. It empowers ASIO, at the request of a cabinet minister, to force a legally innocent person to answer questions
Read MoreThere is a clear link between access to information and the capacity of citizens to secure basic rights.[1] In particular it is clear that if citizens are to be in a position to participate fully in a democracy it is necessary that they have access to the knowledge and information to do so.[2] The Council’s view is that a representative democracy necessitates an informed citizenry. For this reason, freedom of information must be granted to the maximum extent possible.
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