Criminal Justice — News — Queensland Council for Civil Liberties

Review of the Definition of a “Terrorist Act"

Our 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

Joint CCLs submission on ASIO Questioning warrants

In 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

Queensland Council for Civil Liberties9 October 2025Terrorism, ASIO, Criminal Justice

QCCL opposes Public Sex Offender Register

The Council accepts that it is a fundamental human right of all persons particularly children to be protected from sexual assault. However, proposals such as Daniel’s law are most likely to have the opposite effect and do harm to innocent people such as victims”, says QCCL President Michael Cope

Review of the Parole Board.

In our submission no changes should be made to the rights of victims which undermine the rehabilitation of the prisoners. The only consequence of that would be to create more victims, which surely is not the intention of the review let alone the government.

QCCL Opposes Change to Public Drunkenness Law

“Inconvenience or offence, as opposed to violence, experienced by some people cannot justify a law which needlessly exposes some of the most disadvantaged people in our community to the loss of liberty and the heightened risk of serious injury or death” said Mr Cope

Law Reform Commisssion Review of Criminal Defences

The current project by the Commission ‘ticks all the boxes’ in relation to the primary principles guiding Law Reform Commissions namely independence, transparency, accessibility and coherence.

QCCL opposes Public Sex Offender Register

The likely result of these laws is that responsibility for the commission of these crimes will be passed on to parents and other relatives who didn’t check the register or didn’t take some hypothetical steps rather than responsibility clearly and solely lying with the offender.

Crime And Corruption (Restoring Reporting Powers) Amendment Bill

It is submitted that in relation to the Commission making a public statement both in relation to the corruption assessment stage and at the conclusion of the Commission’s investigations, the Bill should be amended to make it clear that the provision contained within Section 65A(4)(g) namely “whether the statement may unreasonably damage the person’s health, safety or wellbeing or privacy or reputation” should be given significant weight by the Commission in deciding whether to issue a public statement.

CAMERA DETECTED ENFORCEMENT FOR SEATBELT OFFENCES

It is our position that reverse onus offences are never justified, as the burden of proof should always be borne by the State, with its superior powers and resources. However, since this is unlikely to be accepted, we submit that if members of the public must have the burden of proving their innocence, then the evidentiary standard must be possible for a private citizen to feasibly challenge, and judges must have sufficient discretion to ensure a fair trial. The scheme as currently implemented satisfies neither of these criteria.

Qccl condemns misguided Youth Justice Changes

Queenslanders rightly expect that young people entering the justice system, are not further encouraged to commit crime. Without appropriate rehabilitation measures, that may well happen.”

Submission on Making Queensland Safer Bill

What is truly extraordinary is that the Attorney, an experienced lawyer, has made a clear admission of the injustices that will be perpetrated in the future with no concerns for consequent human harm. That harm will flow not only to the incarcerated offenders but their later victims.

Pretrial Publication Of Criminal History - Complaint

In making this complaint it is recognised that the event which caused the death of the person driving the car that was hit by the accused person is a significantly and deeply tragic event. It is because of the understandable public outrage that follows such an event that the pretrial publicity rule forbidding publication of an accused’s criminal history exists.

Notes for remarks by President Michael Cope to The Persecution of the Truth 2 - David McBride held 8 November 2024

We cannot permit a system to stand which allows people to be sent to jail for years for exposing killings and other gross violations of human rights.

Doxing Laws need to be Withdrawn

“These laws have clearly been rushed and should be withdrawn until there is further and more substantial consultation” says President Michael Cope

Rhyming sound bites won't fix problems with youth justice system

“Mr Crisafulli should tell Queenslanders what he is going to do to remedy the serious failure to rehabilitate young offenders in Queensland juvenile jails and what he is going to do to address the multiple problems in juvenile justice as outlined in Mr Worrall’s Report”, Mr O’Gorman said.

Review of Queensland’s Human Rights Act

Any set of rights is pretty useless if you do not have an environment in which you can enjoy them. To that end, we do support the inclusion in the Act of a right to a healthy environment

Answers to Questions on notice from Community Safety and Legal Affairs C'ttee

The proposal that ‘associates’ can have a Firearm Protection Order made against them simply because the associate ‘knows’ a recognised offender is objectionable because of the width of the provision and the effect that an FPO can have on that associate’s ability to hold rural employment.

Queensland Community Safety Bill

There are new and draconian powers of warrantless stop and search once a person is the subject of a Firearms Protection Order

Joint CCLs letter re Migration Amendment Bill 2024

We are particularly troubled by the objectives apparently underpinning the legislation, including exclusion of entire nations from migration to Australia, further criminalisation and exposure to imprisonment and detention of people seeking safety in Australia, and circumvention of the impact of a prospective High Court decision regarding unlawful administrative detention.

Juvenile Justice and unjustified attacks on the Judiciary

The Premier is no better than previous LNP Premier Campbell Newman when he attacks Judges for cheap political gain in order to deal with the current law and order public stoush.

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