Random Roadside Drug Testing Legislation Opposed

Mr. Cope says, “The problem the government has is that so far science has been unable to establish a clear relationship between the amount of a drug in your system and your ability to drive.  It is quite a different situation with alcohol where there is a clear correlation between the level of alcohol in your bloodstream and your capacity to drive.  The government then is forced to introduce this draconian legislation.”

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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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Review of Privacy - Issues Paper

The exemption assumes that small businesses are unlikely to hold significant private information or that they are unlikely to disseminate it widely. But the discussion in the paper, particularly that related to small internet businesses, to the collectors of tenancy information such as real estate agents and similar in itself puts a lie to the notion that small businesses do not collect significant personal information. In some cases important genetic information may even be exempt from the application of the Privacy Act. Our view would be that small businesses should be the subject of the legislation but with the power given to the Privacy Commissioner to make public interest modifications.

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QCCL MEDIA RELEASE: WORKCHOICES DECISION HIGHLIGHTS NEED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ACT

Work Choices Decision Highlights Need for Human Rights Act: Mr. Cope President of the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties says “The decision of the High Court in Workchoices case brings home the vast increase in commonwealth powers which have occurred particularly in the last 30 years. In doing so it also adds to the case for the Commonwealth Government to introduce a Human Rights and Responsibilities Act “.

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SNIFFER DOG RAIDS

The NSW Ombudsman in a report released in September this year after a 2 year inquiry found no evidence that the use of sniffer dogs disrupted street dealing in any sustained fashion. The evidence also showed that the use of police sniffer dogs didn’t reduce drug related crime. Nor did their use lead to any increase in perceptions of public safety.

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Submission to the Senate Select Committee on Mental Health

QCCL believes problems within the mental health care landscape have led to a climate of inequity and injustice for people with mental illness. Problems such as the lack of supported accommodation services in the community and the broad failure to prevent people with mental illness entering correctional facilities are symptomatic of a larger theme of inequity across the entire health system. That is, the clear lack of funding and resources afforded to mental health care in this country.

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PM Urged to Drop Threat to Veto ACT Human Rights Act

ACCL President Terry O’Gorman said the poor human rights record of the Howard Government, especially its supine position towards the US over Messrs Hicks and Habib’s imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay, would guarantee a strong backlash against the Prime Minister if he moved to override the ground breaking ACT human rights legislation.

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