The Internet should not be regulated as a broadcast medium and yet that is what the Online Safety Act does.
Read More
It is our position that in order to ensure that Local Councils in the State properly comply with their obligations in this regard, section 5 (4) of the Peaceful Assembly Act ought to be repealed. That way, local authorities in this State would become subject to the same notification and Court review process as the police are.
Read More
“The inability of government to act as arbiter in its own cause means that freedom of speech includes the right to make false claims about social and political matters. In order to sustain uninhibited political discourse, the state cannot prevent resort to exaggeration or offence or even to false statements”, says Mr Cope
Read More
The government's role as an intellectual arbiter of the truth in social and political debate must be constricted, if not completely denied. This is based on a deep skepticism about the good faith of those controlling the government. That skepticism flows from the fact that decisions about what is true or false, when made by those in power, are bound up with political perspectives of those in power. In that regard the government is not impartial when it comes to contested disputes about the facts underlying political life. This is not meant to be some conspiracy theory. It derives from the fact that in the words of Lord Acton “All power tends to corrupt.”
Read More
This legislation was introduced in 2004 at the peak of concerns about terrorism. Since then, we have learned that the law inappropriately prioritizes the secrecy of national security information over the administration of justice
Read More
We remain of the view that you cannot end racism and other pernicious ideas by censorship and policing. What needs to be done is to focus on addressing the root causes of why some people are attracted to such ideologies in the first place, including social isolation, growing economic insecurity and mistrust in government and the media.
Read More
“The QCCL looks forward to the review recommending changes to the current whistleblower laws that significantly improve the protection for those who breach government secrecy in the public interest” says Mr Cope
Read More
Restrictions on electoral expenditure are akin to the rules of debate in a meeting which restricts the length of speeches and provide for rights of reply. In the context of political speech, the restrictions are essential to fairness, in that the arms race between various political players is continuously increasing the cost of elections, which results in an increasing number of people being excluded from the political process. Capping expenditure would also help to create closer financial equality between candidates at elections
Read More
In our view in a noisy environment like a modern city, effective communication must involve speakers being able to amplify their voices within clear limits that respect the rights of other users of the space.
Read More
Mr O’Gorman posed the question does this mean that no practising Catholic can ever be a CEO of Essendon or any other football codes or clubs who have approved or have been silent on the circumstances of Mr Thorburn’s departure from Essendon
Read More
The expenditure cap for third parties should strike a fair balance between respect for freedom of speech and association, and the importance of preventing third parties exercising disproportionate influence in elections and being used to circumvent expenditure caps. The current proposal is that each third party can spend the same amount as all the mayoral candidate caps combined. This is absurd. This system permits every third party the same influence, in expenditure terms, as all the mayoral candidates combined. It is hard to see how this system would not inevitably lead to the exact outcome the system purports to be trying to avoid – that being the complete drowning out of other election participants’ voices.
Read More
The social media platform is simply the provider of a space, a forum, in which people make contributions. They are not like for example the editor of a newspaper- controllers of what content goes on their sites.
Read More
The Internet is the new public square. So much of public debate, discussion and exchange of information now takes place on the Internet. On that basis, the doctrines of freedom of speech must be applied to the Internet.The rights of speakers on the Internet need to be protected. Another fundamental aspect of the right to freedom of speech is the right to do so anonymously. History is replete with examples of people having exercised their right of speech then being subject to reprisals by government or individuals
Read More
The right to freedom of speech is a fundamental right which the City Council in fact has a duty to facilitate. It should do so by enacting laws which comply with its obligations under the Human Rights Act.
Read More
Restrictions on electoral expenditure are akin to the rules of debate in a meeting which restrict the length of speeches and provide for rights of reply. This feature of expenditure caps makes them more acceptable than donation bans or caps.
Read More
Both industrial organisations and corporations are economic actors pursuing their economic interests in the economic market and the political market.The interests of shareholders and the members of industrial organisations are in this regard indistinguishable from one another. There is no legitimate basis for subjecting one set to a series of burdens and controls which do not apply to others. Or to put it in a positive way, there is no reason why one set of individuals, that is members of industrial organisations, should have more rights than shareholders.
Read More
It is actions that should be the subject of criminal sanctions not indications of support or involvement in political organisations. All of the conduct which is alleged against the organisations to be proscribed which is said to justify that proscription could be the subject of an ordinary criminal charge.
Read More