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The coronavirus crisis has raised many complex and difficult issues for civil libertarians, none more so than in the case of the right to protest, particularly in the context of such an important issue as the massive over incarceration of Australia’s First Nations people
Read MoreWe acknowledge that all the rights in the Human Rights Act can be limited in accordance with section 13. However, it is the Council’s position that mandatory vaccination is only acceptable where there is an exemption for those who hold a personal, philosophical or religious objection to it.
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 MoreThe NSW, Queensland and South Australian Councils for Civil Liberties support the introduction of effective digital contact tracing if it has robust privacy and transparency legislation underpinning it. There are however outstanding issues the Government should address before this Bill is passed.
Read MoreThe Federal Government’s draft Bill in relation to the COVIDSAFE app contains a number of welcome features including the very strong prohibitions on people requiring another person to download the app and the involvement of the Privacy Commissioner in reviewing the system. But it does not go far enough.
Read MoreThe federal government’s announcements in relation to the Covidsafe App contain a number of good features. However, fundamental issues of concern remain.
Read MoreThe QCCL today expressed its concern about the apparent decision by the government to ask Australians to use the Singaporean “Trace Together“ COVID-19 tracking app, which will not adequately protect the privacy of Australians.
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.
Read MoreThe QCCL condemns the decision of the Queensland government yesterday to ram through its health crisis legislation and give itself the power to close down the Parliament.
Read MoreCivil Liberties Council Vice-President Terry O’Gorman said the Police Minister has apparently decided to join in the Queensland Opposition’s ‘attack the Judges’ strategy as opening shots are fired in the Queensland State Election due in October this year.
Read MoreThe 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 MoreThere is a difference between how our Criminal Code deals with the defence of mistake and how the Common Law deals with it. At common-law, a person will succeed in a defence of mistake of fact, if they held the belief in the mistaken fact honestly. However, under the Queensland Criminal Code the mistake of fact defence can only succeed when a person not only honestly has made a mistake, but their belief is reasonable.
Once again, public commentary on this issue seems to ignore the fact that Queensland law already provides for a mixture of subjective and objective factors in assessing whether or not the accused has made a mistake of fact. In particular, in our review of the law we found no support for the view that “reckless indifference” would ever be consistent with the reasonableness requirement in the Criminal Code
We can accept that there is a case, as there is in relation to churches, that such spaces are kept exclusively for the believers. Though it is our view, that the draft bill needs to be amended to make it clear that it is restricted to facilities dedicated to such spiritual purposes. Again, it is our position, that should the religious body make these facilities available on a commercial basis, they lose the right to avail selves of this exception. We also make the comment, that it is not clear to us why this is not covered by clause 36.
Read MoreThe Council calls upon the government to withdraw its proposed campaign finance electoral law reforms and to revisit the rules relating to third parties, to ensure that they do not impose an unfair burden on many organisations that will deter them from expressing their views on important topics.
Read MoreRestrictions 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 MoreReligious worship is essential to most people's lives. This is true for non-believers as well as believers once we recognise that freedom of religious worship includes the freedom not to worship.
Once we accept that proposition the only generally acceptable basis for freedom of worship is equal freedom for everybody. Each person when considering their own claim to be able to worship freely, would reject a proposal that gave them less freedom to do so then another person.
Religious belief is primarily a matter of individual conscience. However, freedom of religion also encompasses the freedom to manifest one’s belief in community with others and in public. This is because witness in words and deeds is bound up with the existence of religious convictions.
The QCCL welcomes this Inquiry, given the recent raids by the Australian Federal Police on media organisations who published disclosures from public sector whistleblowers. In 2019, Australia has also slipped several places in the World Press Freedom Index[1] due to a range of laws that infringe upon public interest reporting and the ability of journalists to protect their sources. The most concerning of these laws are discussed below.
In the absence of any explicit protection of freedom of speech and a free press in Australia's legal framework, it is critical that whistleblowers and the Australian press are provided with necessary protection to enable them to fulfil their democratic roles of holding the Government to account and keeping the public informed.
Read MoreThe Council welcomes yesterday’s decision by the Chief Magistrate to reject the Brisbane City Council‘s application to prohibit the protest march in the city this morning.
Read MoreThe Premier today released a statement in which she said there was evidence that protesters were arming themselves with booby traps, which could harm those who remove the protestors from a place of protest.
Read MoreThe necessity for the reform of the law of bail contained in this Bill is made clear by the statistics that 80% of children in detention are on remand and only 16 percent of young people on remand go on to receive a custodial sentence and therefore the vast majority of them are spending unnecessary time in detention.
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