The Bligh government stands condemned for its confused and confusing approach to the issue of same sex surrogacy as opposed to adoption by same sex couples.
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The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties has today called on the Queensland government to implement Labor party policy by reforming abortion law in Queensland. If the government is not prepared to lead on this issue it should ask the Law Reform Commission to review the issue as was done in Victoria.
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The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties has called upon the Parliamentary
Committee supervising the CMC to summons CMC head Robert Needham to a public hearing.
QCCL Vice President Terry O’Gorman said today a public hearing was needed to
explain why the CMC has taken four years to complete its investigation of the Queensland police handling of the aftermath of the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee.
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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QCCL MEDIA RELEASE: CALL FOR LAWPREVENTING PUBLIC IDENTIFICATION OF ACCUSED SEXUAL OFFENDERS
In the wake of Dennis Ferguson’s acquittal, the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties has again called for a law change preventing persons charged with a sexual offence, especially a child sexual offence, from being publicly identified especially by the media until after they are convicted.
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Eminent community leaders, human rights activists and Members of the Legislative Assembly will meet this Wednesday evening at Queensland Parliament House to discuss whether Queensland’s legislative treatment of the rights of its citizens is falling behind comparable neighbour states and nations.
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"The House of Representative’s Family & Community Affairs Committee Report released this morning is a disgrace”, said Brian McConnell, President of Families & Friends for Drug Law Reform.
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The President of the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties today welcomed the fact that due process had been followed in the case of Sergeant Hurley.
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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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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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The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties has accused the Corrective Services Minister, Ms Judy Spence, of undermining the rule of law in her treatment of prisoners.
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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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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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The QCCL strongly opposes the authorisation of illegal conduct by police. The purpose of the police is to suppress criminal activity, not to encourage or create it. There is in our view no justification for any police instigation of any serious criminal conduct.
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The Australian Council for Civil Liberties today welcomed the decision of the Queensland DPP (Leanne Clare SC) to release the Mulrunji Doomadgee file to the Queensland Attorney General so that an independent opinion can be obtained.
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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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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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The Council takes 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 publicise them appropriatel
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We would be of the view that it would not be appropriate to make the de-identification reversible. This is because it opens up the opportunity for the de-identification process to be reversed for inappropriate purposes.
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