Posts in Submission
Judiical Appointments
Judiical Appointments

The Council finds it nonsense to suggest appointment based solely on merit by this process is possible. Nor does the Council think that the public is best served by continuing to portray the notion that there is an idealised standard for a Judge and there is always a clear front-runner for the role. The Council is certain that for any position there are a considerable number of choices who would be more than capable of performing the role well. Society’s main interest is that the appointee is one of those capable of performing the role well. To that end it must be beyond doubt that the appointment was neither arbitrary nor political. That is what it is at the moment.

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SubmissionQueensland Council for Civil LibertiesCourts
Australian Citizenship-You're right, Your Responsibility Discussion Paper.
Australian Citizenship-You're right, Your Responsibility Discussion Paper.

"citizenship is not a license that expires upon misbehaviour. The duties of citizenship are numerous and the discharge of many of these obligations is essential to the security and well-being of the Nation. The citizen who fails to pay his taxes or to abide by the laws safeguarding the integrity of elections deals a dangerous blow to his country. But could a citizen be deprived of his nationality for evading these basic responsibilities of citizenship?….But citizenship is not lost every time a duty of citizenship is shirked. And the deprivation of citizenship is not a weapon the government may use to express its displeasure at a citizen's conduct however reprehensible that conduct may be. As long as a person does not voluntarily renounce or abandon his citizenship… his fundamental right of citizenship is secure."

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SubmissionQueensland Council for Civil LibertiesHuman Rights, Citizenship
Safe Night Out Legislation Amendment Bill 2014

The Council recognises that this Bill is a response to concerns in the community about alcohol related violence. However, the Council maintains that the response to this issue needs to take into account the right to privacy, the right to freedom of association and the right to due process. All of these rights are recognised in Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The QCCL has as its objective the implementation of the rights contained in this instrument in Queensland.

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SubmissionQueensland Council for Civil LibertiesCriminal Justice, Drug Law Reform, Police, Surveillance
Submission in relation to the Government's Safe Night Out Strategy
Submission in relation to the Government's Safe Night Out Strategy

The QCCL does not take the view that there is a human right to access alcohol. We note in this regard the discussion of this issue by McMurdo P. and Justice Keane in Aurukun Shire Council and Anor –v- CEO Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing [2010] QCA 37 at paragraphs 43 and 142 to 145. McMurdo P. returned to the issue in the decision of Morton –v- Queensland Police Service [2010] QCA 160.[1]

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SubmissionSiegfried ClarkeHuman Rights, Drug & Alcohol Policy, Police
Campaign Finance - Trade Unions
Campaign Finance - Trade Unions

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.

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SubmissionQueensland Council for Civil LibertiesFree speech, freedom of association, Industrial Relations
Prohibition Doesn’t Work, It Never Has and Never Will
Prohibition Doesn’t Work, It Never Has and Never Will

Why do people use drugs? The question should be amplified and rephrased: what makes some young people use drugs that are officially declared dangerous and illegal in contrast to the majority who drink and smoke socially approved substances? The most obvious and natural answer is because they like them. We do not generally look for obscure, psychological or sociological explanations of most drug use in the community. People take alcohol, smoke tobacco, drink tea and coffee because they enjoy the effects of these substances

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SubmissionQueensland Council for Civil LibertiesDrug & Alcohol Policy, Drug Law Reform
Submission to National Human Rights Consultation Committee
Submission to National Human Rights Consultation Committee

The members of this Council do not think that there is any single way to protect civil liberties in this country.  The pluralistic, open, democratic society in which we live only survives because the citizens of this country believe in it sufficiently to be active in support of it.  This however does not mean that we cannot improve our institutional arrangements to ensure that they best support the continued existence of that society.

 

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SubmissionQueensland Council for Civil LibertiesHuman Rights, Human Rights Act, Freedom of religion, Free speech
Workplace Privacy
Workplace Privacy

Perhaps at its core privacy protects and ensures equality in the sense that we are entitled to equal concern and respect as individuals, and not that we are entitled to do as we please. Such an approach would shift away from viewing privacy as a prerequisite for preventing invasions of various liberty interests to one of maintaining conditions that will make the exercise of those liberty interests possible. So conceptualised, equality would be at the hub and the various liberty interests protected by privacy simply spokes on the privacy wheel.”

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SubmissionQueensland Council for Civil Libertiesprivacy
Review of the Power to Proscribe Organisations as Terrorist Organisations
Review of the Power to Proscribe Organisations as Terrorist Organisations

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.

 

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SubmissionQueensland Council for Civil LibertiesTerrorism, police powers, freedom of association, Free speech