The QCCL urges the Queensland Government to implement the recommendations of the Honourable Alan Wilson KC’s Review urgently to ensure that whistleblower protection in Queensland is robust and fit for purpose.
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Every Australian has a right to freedom of speech and freedom of protest. It is the tactic of authoritarian regimes the world over to have armed police officers visit a person’s home to attempt to dissuade them from exercising their legitimate right to freedom of speech and freedom of protest.
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“Whilst the laws will provide a significant improvement over the current position they do not go far enough” says Michael Cope QCCL President
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The right of freedom of speech, dictates that the media must be given the widest possible latitude to seek and publish truthful speech about matters of public interest so that the audience is best able to form their beliefs and desires.
It is this Council’s view that the Courier Mail has raised important public issues as to the extent to which the OIA may be improperly exercising its powers where it is arguably contrary to the provisions of the OIA’s statute with the result that free speech incursions are occurring in relation to the ability of Local Councillors to exercise their public duty to engage in appropriate criticism of matters affecting Local Government in Queensland
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The QCCL unreservedly condemns all forms of racial vilification and discrimination. However, in the Council’s view, it is another thing to make the expression of such views illegal.
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A law requiring people to register with the Council before they can exercise their right to express a political opinion on their own private property is fundamentally repugnant to the whole concept of freedom of speech” says Michael Cope President of the QCCL
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Freedom of speech is rooted in a distrust of the government’s capacity to regulate speech particularly political speech, where it is always in a position of a conflict of interest. This conflict is no starker when it is seeking to restrain the use of embarrassing information obtained by journalists
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In formulating our views on what such a law should look like we have had regard to the principle that the press is and must be independent from government and has a presumptive though not unconditional right to seek out the news. Freedom of speech is rooted in a distrust of the government’s capacity to regulate speech particularly political speech where it is in a position of a conflict of interest. This conflict is no starker when it is seeking to restrain the use of embarrassing information obtained by journalists
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The coronavirus crisis has raised many complex and difficult issues for civil libertarians, none more so than in the case of the right to protest, particularly in the context of such an important issue as the massive over incarceration of Australia’s First Nations people
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The Council welcomes yesterday’s decision by the Chief Magistrate to reject the Brisbane City Council‘s application to prohibit the protest march in the city this morning.
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The Premier today released a statement in which she said there was evidence that protesters were arming themselves with booby traps, which could harm those who remove the protestors from a place of protest.
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The QCCL unreservedly condemns all forms of racial vilification and discrimination. However in the Council’s view, it is another thing to make the expression of such views illegal
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Reviewing these activities confirms my view that we are trying to carry out an ambitious task with quite inadequate resources, a task which is well beyond the capacity of a small group of concerned people attempting to cope in their spare time on a voluntary basis with difficult matters often requiring considerable research and expertise…
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The current state government shows blithe disregard for the separation of powers and contempt for its critics such as this resilient and wily Council. As a republican former Attorney-General, I am reluctant to offer advice to the present, monarchist Attorney-General Jarrod Bleije; but, out of respect for the current Queen who is after all a constitutional monarch, the Attorney really should approach Buckingham Palace to seek a renaming of the Queen Elizabeth II Supreme and District Courts Building to the Stuart Kings Courts building. This would reflect more accurately his recently legislated power to use executive power to override the Judiciary. Courts can be such a nuisance to cocky governments.
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“In a democracy people are entitled to try to persuade others to even the most extreme views so long as they do it non violently.”
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