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The police have made it clear that they will be exercising a discretion as to who is searched - they will be “judicious” and elderly people will have nothing to fear. Research from Australia and overseas indicates that police assessments of whom to search or question are often based on generalizations and negative stereotypes that are in part attributable to ethnic bias.The Review found that the use of unwarranted generalizations and stereotypes is what happened during the trial
Read MoreThe rule against double jeopardy is not a rule designed to protect the guilty but to protect the innocent.
Read MoreThe issue is how do we meet the legitimate aims of this legislation whilst protecting the fundamental liberty rights at stake in the criminal justice process.
Read MoreThe Council accepts that the public exhibition of sexual activities should be banned. However, we also take the view that nude beaches should be permitted so long as they are in secluded areas and are known and clearly marked as nude beaches. If necessary, the State Government or relevant local councils should take steps to designate nude beaches and to mark and publicize them appropriately.
Read MoreThe Civil Liberties Council calls on the Premier to intervene in this farcical controversy and bring Queensland in line with the rest of the country and outlaw police using the fatal stranglehold completely in absolutely all cases”, Mr O’Gorman said.
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Astonishingly, when the government announced these laws, it relied upon a review of the trial of this system as justifying their introduction. As this submission will demonstrate, to the contrary, that report justified the criticisms which have been made of this type of law.
Read MoreWhy haven’t the guideline judgment provisions of the Queensland Penalties and Sentencing Act been used by the Premier and the Police Minister to ask the Appeal Court to remedy supposedly soft sentences by Magistrates?
Read More“The traditional requirement that before a search can proceed there must be a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed or a weapon found is a bulwark protection of our liberty. Such a requirement is essential to being able to prevent arbitrary searches or searches based on bias. The granting of such powers will inevitably result in unwarranted invasions of privacy.”
Read MoreThe Council maintains its position that the advancement of women’s equality and protecting them from violence cannot come at the expense of fundamental legal principles and arrangements designed to protect the liberty of everyone
Read Morewhat seems right is to use law to protect the bodily safety of prostitutes from assault, to protect their rights to their incomes against the extortionate behaviour of pimps, to protect poor women in developing countries from forced trafficking and fraudulent offers, and to guarantee their full civil rights in the countries where they end up—to make them, in general, equals under the law, both civil and criminal….But the criminalisation of prostitution seems to pose a major obstacle to that equality
Read MoreEvidence given by a former Queensland Homicide Detective at this week’s Whiskey Au Go Go bombing inquest that verballing allegations against police were “what criminal lawyers did in those days” is a tired old almost 50 year refrain by senior former Queensland Police trying to rewrite history.
Read MoreAs John Stuart Mill argued the preventive power of the State is, “far more liable to be abused, to the prejudice of liberty, then the punitory function; for there is hardly any part of the legitimate freedom of action of a human being that would not admit of being represented, and fairly too, as increasing the facilities for some form or other of delinquency.”
Read MoreHowever, there are real concerns as to whether this expansion of powers will infringe upon an individual’s right to personal privacy[6] and the privilege against self-incrimination.[7] The consequences of these infringements are exacerbated by the high likelihood that vulnerable and minority groups are disproportionately affected by these laws.[8]
Read Morethe first question that must be addressed is whether the technology is actually going to reduce harm caused by police chases. The chase must presumably have to start. There must still have to be a police policy dealing with the circumstances in which chases will be commenced, even if they are intended to be relatively short because this technology will be available.
Overseas discussions of this issue make reference to avoiding problems with other vehicles by implementing technology in all cars which enables each car to react to the presence of another vehicle.
This then brings us to serious other issues connected with this type of technology. Those issues relate to the fundamental rights of privacy and freedom of movement.
Today’s Courier Mail report that a prisoner hung himself from the same hanging point inside the same cell at Wolston Prison in Brisbane just weeks after he was rescued from an earlier suicide attempt has reignited calls for the State Government to set up an Independent Inspectorate of Prisons as a matter of urgency.
Read Morewe reiterate that a solution to the issue of driver distraction is not capable of resolution via the use of artificial intelligence to detect offences. On the terms of the amended primary legislation, this simply means that the power to enforce law becomes easier and automated. An increased ease by which law may be enforced is not a legitimate means to addressing the issue of distracted drivers
Read MoreThe QCCL condemns the latest bid in the law and order auction that is going on in this election, namely the announcement by the opposition that it will introduce a curfew for young people in Townsville.
Read MoreWe submitted that the law should reflect the proposition that in determining whether or not an accused’s belief that a person was consenting was reasonable, the jury should be able to take into account whether the accused was aware of circumstances which would lead a reasonable person to inquire further into the issue of consent. So that if the circumstances known to the accused were such that a reasonable person would not or might not take further steps to ascertain consent, then the accused will not be required to take any further steps either.
Read MoreThe QCCL has written to the Commissioner of Police asking for comment in relation to reports that police are using ANPR (Automated Number Plate Recognition Technology) to charge people with breaching the Home Confinement Direction by travelling more than 50km from their home.
Read MoreQCCL calls upon the Police Commissioner to at least twice weekly release details of the conduct that is resulting in people being charged or given a ticket for breaching the home confinement direction.
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