President's Report 2022
QUEENSLAND COUNCIL OF CIVIL LIBERTIES
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
30 OCTOBER 2022
MCILWRAITH CROQUET CLUB
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
1. EXECUTIVE
This year, the executive consisted of, in addition to me:
· VP’s-Terry O’Gorman and Angus Murray
· Secretary Katherine Gough
· Treasurer John Drew
· ordinary executive members-Roger Byrom, John Ransley, Eugene O’Sullivan, Chris Main, Siegfried Clarke, Tracy Bryan (newsletter editor) and Nicola Murray
I once again, thank them for their contributions to the Council this year. We are all volunteers and all that can be asked is that everyone does what they can to keep this organisation functioning.
I wish to acknowledge in particular the assistance of Siegfried Clarke who has been continuing to drag us into the 21st Century.
One thing that I have unfortunately been remiss in doing in this report is thanking our interns. The interns come to us through the University of Queensland Pro Bono Centre. They are 3 law students - Kate Power, Alexa Samuels and Rory David. This year’s interns have in my view been particularly helpful and have prepared a number of excellent submissions. I would note in particular the submission which was prepared in relation to the decriminalization of certain public offences. On behalf of the Council, I thank this year’s interns for their excellent contribution to our work, which would be much less effective if they had not been around.
2. ISSUES
As is the tradition with these reports, I set out below the issues with which we have been concerned throughout the year. Except for the confidential submissions, all the submissions referred to below are to be found on the website.
(a) COVID19
Absent, the development of some “super variant” the pandemic has come to an end. Despite that, the emergency powers, though thankfully considerably reduced in scope, do not come to an end until October next year.
As you know, our position is that the emergency powers should have come to an end on 31 December 2021, at the latest.
The pandemic has allowed us to see what people are prepared to put up with in terms of the reduction of their basic rights and liberties. The answer is that people are prepared to put up with a lot.
Some have criticised the QCCL for the position which we took regarding the pandemic. That position was when the community was faced with a deadly unknown virus for which there was no effective treatment or vaccine, there was an emergency situation which justified the government taking emergency steps, including emergency powers. However, we strenuously maintained with that was not a carte blanche. There were certain basic and fundamental rights and liberties which could not be given away. The position then was between those who said that the government should be able to do whatever the “medical advice” said and those who argued that there was no need for any additional powers for the government.
I think this remains the correct position. However, it seems to me that it is clear that sometime in the next year or so there is going to have to be a public inquiry into the pandemic response so that we can identify what worked and what didn’t work so that the next time there is a pandemic we will have a better understanding of what powers the government should have.
(b) Integrity
Integrity in government has been at the forefront of the public agenda this past 12 months.
the QCCL supported the public inquiry in relation to allegations about deficiencies at the Queensland government’s forensic lab. We took the view that those allegations were so serious that the only way that the public’s confidence in the administration of criminal justice in this State could be maintained was by a public inquiry.
We also supported an inquiry into the general allegations about failings in the public service, in particular the meddling into the operations Tof the Office of the Integrity Commission.
A submission was made to the inquiry in relation to the Crime and Corruption Commission in which we argued that its functions of investigating police misconduct should be taken from it and given to a separate body, as is the case in New South Wales.
Finally, we made a submission in relation to the Bill to introduce the National Anti-Corruption Commission. We recognise the importance to public confidence in government of having a mechanism to identify and root out corruption in government. However, we also argued that that body should not be allowed to have a roving commission to investigate vague notions of integrity and justice. The police do not conduct their investigations in public, public hearings should be restricted to exceptional circumstances.
(c) Religious Freedom
Freedom of worship, which includes the freedom not to believe, is fundamental to who we are as human beings.
Religious people are entitled to laws which remove practices that restrict the range of opportunities available to them. But they are not entitled to special accommodations for their preferences. The distinction is between limits on the range of opportunities open to people and limits on the choices they may make between the opportunities available to them which are a consequence of the interaction between laws of general application and their religious preferences.
On the basis of those concepts, we supported a Commonwealth Religious Discrimination Bill, so long as it was a Bill modelled on the traditional antidiscrimination laws. We also made public comment attacking the forced removal of Mr Thorburn as the Chief Executive Officer of the Essendon football club as a clear violation of the right to freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Diversity and inclusiveness are important values, but so too is freedom of speech and freedom of worship, both these sets of values must be respected.
(d) Public offences
As noted above, we made what I consider to be a very compelling submission to the Queensland Parliament’s Community Support and Services Committee, supporting the decriminalisation of the offences of begging, public intoxication and public urination on the basis of their disparate impact upon vulnerable members of the community, particularly indigenous persons.
(e) Sex work
Our submission to the Queensland Law Reform Commission’s inquiry into the decriminalisation of sex work, supported the decriminalisation of sex work, including street sex work. Having said that, we did support a licensing system. We submitted that licensing does not negate decriminalisation - many decriminalised pursuits or activities are regulated by a licensing system - decriminalisation does not necessarily demand that an industry be completely deregulated. We argued a key benefit of implementing a licensing system is that it enhances the protection of sex workers by allowing for supervision and background checks on owners and managers of brothels etc. We acknowledged concerns raised about a licensing system but advocated for one to be implemented due to its capacity to enhance the safety of sex workers.
(f) Local Government Election Expenditure Caps
The position that we have taken across of number of submissions relating to electoral finance laws is that we do not support the banning of donations to political parties. Rather there should be continuous disclosure of donations above a relatively modest minimum. The aim of evening up the political arms race should be achieved by limiting expenditure. The issue with abolishing donations is that it will effectively preclude new entrants from the political process. This point was recently acknowledged[1] by Simon Holmes a Court, when he admitted that if there had been a ban on political donations the recent success of the so-called teal independents would have been impossible. This submission therefore supported expenditure caps in principle but criticized the proposed restrictions in so far as they applied to third parties.
(g) Anti-Discrimination Act
Our submission to the Queensland Human Rights Commission argued for an increase in the attributes covered by the legislation and for the introduction of a positive obligation to make reasonable adjustments in relation to impairment in all areas covered by the legislation.
(h) Surveillance
Angus Murray has been doing a lot of work on behalf of the council in this area and will discuss it separately. Surveillance devices are continuing to proliferate in our community including at Woolworths. Our position is that the use of live facial recognition technology should be banned in all public places including those privately owned. We are still waiting for the government to implement the recommendations of the Queensland Law Reform Commission in its report released in 2020 in relation to surveillance devices in private places. We are also still waiting for that Commission to start work on its report in relation to workplace privacy, a reference it received in 2018.
(i) Social Media Regulation
We also made a submission in relation to the former federal government's proposed social media [anti trolling] legislation. We supported the legislation insofar as it overturned a decision of the High Court which made social media companies liable for posts made on their websites. In our view, anonymous speech is fundamental to free speech. However, we have always recognised that a court ought to be able to order the disclosure of an anonymous poster to social media in appropriate circumstances. We opposed the provisions in the legislation which would have made it much easier to obtain such an order.
(j) Journalist Shield Laws
Whilst we thought that they did not go far enough, we supported the Queensland State government’s journalist shield laws and argued that they should be applied to the Crime and Corruption Commission.
(k) Age of criminal responsibility
A submission was made supporting a Bill introduced by the Greens Party into the Queensland Parliament which would have raised the age of criminal responsibility to 14.
(l) Inspector of Detention Services
We welcomed the decision of the Queensland government to introduce legislation to create an inspector of detention services in this State, a reform for which we have been arguing for many years. However, we pointed out that the legislature did not go far enough in that it did not extend to the proposed quarantine centres. We also say that it should be extended to places of detention on the grounds of mental health.
(m) Continuing Detention of Terrorist Suspects and Others
A submission was made to the review by the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor in relation to his review of the laws providing for the continued attention of convicted terrorists after their sentence has expired. This is a particular bugbear of mine since it seems to me that there is no moral justification because of highly suspect predictions of reoffending by medical types to continue to detain somebody. This issue is becoming even more urgent since the High Court recently upheld Western Australian legislation which extends this concept to “ordinary” criminal offences. The criminal law must deal with people on the basis of what they have done. A court can only impose a punishment which reflects the person’s moral culpability for what they have done. There is no way punishment can be imposed for what they might do according to some doctor
(n) Confidential Submissions
I would also note that the Council is regularly asked to make confidential submissions to various government departments, which obviously do not appear on the website. Though quite often those submissions form the basis of submissions to Parliamentary committees when subsequently legislation is introduced.
3. Events
(a) Pandemic Panel
On 14 July we held a panel discussion in relation to pandemic powers. A very interesting discussion was held featuring panellists Neroli Holmes, Scott Emerson and Phil Green.
.
(b) Derek Fielding Memorial Lecture
This year's Derek fielding memorial lecture was presented by Mr Bernard Collaery. A very well supported event gave our speaker the opportunity to bring to light the struggle he has been through in the last few years for simply doing his job as a lawyer representing the interests of his client, who was seeking to expose perfidious conduct by the Australian government
Michael Cope
President
30 October 2022
[1] when interviewed by Philip Adams on Late Night Live ABC RN 18 October 2022