The interim economic inclusion committee has recently released a report that sets out the catastrophic impact that the current rate of the jobseeker payment has had on many Australians. Currently, only $50 a day is payable to a single individual, which is two-thirds of the single rate of age pension. This is completely unsustainable for anyone living in modern Australia.

NSW Council for Civil Liberties committee member Stephen Blanks yesterday told a hearing of the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs in regard to The Criminal Code Amendment (Prohibition of Nazi Symbols) Bill 2023 (the Bill) that the legislation didn’t “go to the heart of the problem”.

Mr Blanks argued criminal law was only one of the required tools to prevent Nazi ideology and wouldn’t be enough on its own. Freedom of expression does not give licence to individuals to engage in expression which engenders hate and incites violence. He said the proposed legislation must iron out any doubts over people who might be displaying Nazy symbols for educational purposes or other reasons who weren’t about promoting hateful ideology.

NSW Council for Civil Liberties President, Josh Pallas, appeared before the Senate Committee on Education and Employment Legislation yesterday. The Bills being considered are sponsored by Senators Pauline Hanson and Matt Canavan. They suggest that States should not be able to restrict freedom of movement from State to State of any Australian citizen and they suggest that employers should not be able to ask an employee to receive a COVID-19 vaccination.

In our view, the Bills in question, unreasonably and disproportionately protect the unvaccinated at the expense of the rights of other members of the community. Based on the generally accepted medical science, the Bills are incompatible with human rights.

Australia’s domestic intelligence agency Asio has welcomed a Coalition bill to ban Nazi symbols including the Sieg Heil salute, telling a parliamentary inquiry it would help prevent recruitment and radicalisation by far-right extremists.

The Victorian Government announced thay would implement a ban of the salute after a group of men from the National Socialist Network repeatedly performed the salute on the steps of Victoria’s parliament last month. This prompted shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash to introduce a federal bill. 

The Australian government has agreed to release the full findings of the Double Six tragedy where a Nomad N-22B aircraft crashed and killed 11 people in 1976.

Australia's Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Sydney yesterday decided to allow the release in its entirety of Australia's reports on the tragedy. This followed a request made to National Archives of Australia (NAA) by the former Sabah chief minister Tan Sri Harris Mohd Salleh.

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee (Committee) in regard to the administration of the referendum into an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice (Referendum).

NSWCCL's submission focuses on key issues relating to the disenfranchisement of First Nations people, misinformation and disinformation, and the ongoing integrity and assurance process of the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).

We support the Voice as an enactment of the Uluru Statement of the Heart, and the proposed amendment to the Constitution of Australia. We submit that the proposed wording is appropriate and should be put to the Australian people in its current form.

Whilst this Inquiry is based on the wording of the proposed amendment, we observe that many submissions provided are more concerned with the concept of the Voice, laced with unfounded fears and scaremongering, akin to those upon the introduction of the Native Title Act 1993.[1] In our submission, we call on the Committee to consider such submissions in that light.

The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs in regard to The Criminal Code Amendment (Prohibition of Nazi Symbols) Bill 2023 (the Bill).

Freedom of expression does not give licence to individuals to engage in expression which engenders hate and incites violence. To that end, we support the principles underpinning the bill. However, the council believes it is the promotion of Nazi ideology which should be criminalised. To the extent that this Bill falls short of that objective, it is inadequate.  It seeks to criminalise only one aspect of the promotion of Nazi ideology – the display of Nazi symbols.  That does not go to the heart of the problem.  Careful consideration of how to prevent the promotion of Nazi ideology is required – the criminal law is only one of the required tools; other tools are required – education, engagement, diversion – and the criminalised conduct should be the core of the offensive conduct, not a superficial aspect.  

In a recent submission to a review of anti-discrimination laws, the Presbyterian Church of Australia argued for the right to exclude students from leadership positions, such as school captain, if they were having pre-marital sex or in a same-sex relationship arguing that "They would not be able to give appropriate Christian leadership in a Christian school which requires modelling Christian living", AAP reports. 

The NSW Council of Civil Liberties said the proposal seemed punitive and would have a chilling effect on student morale.

The UN has adopted a historic resolution that will make it easier to hold polluting countries legally accountable for their failure to act on the climate crisis. The resolution calls for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue an official opinion that will clarify that obligations that nations have to tackle the climate crisis, and the consequences they should face for inaction.

As previously submitted, privacy is a fundamental human right that is central to the maintenance of democratic societies and achieving respect for human dignity. To this end, urgent reform is required to modernise the Act and ensure it is fit for purpose in the digital age, and the NSWCCL reiterates its previous submissions outlined in its response dated 9 January 2022 to the Attorney General’s Privacy Act Review Discussion Paper.

A meeting of the nation's various data and digital ministers resulted in the release of a communique on the 24th of February, asserting the urgency of implementing a national digital identification system which would make it easier for 'citizens to deal with the government', Paul Gregoire reports.

The 2014 Financial System Inquiry report found that many Australians are likely to object to a digital ID system due to privacy concerns, as it could be perceived as a digital version of the unpopular Australia Card initiative, which was rejected in 1987.

Organisers of the Sydney Royal Easter Show have clarified their stance on rap music being banned at this year’s event, claiming their intentions had been misconstrued upon the ban’s announcement.

Brock Gilmour – chief executive of the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW, said that rap music could in fact be played at the Easter Show, so long as it abides by the condition that it’s “quite pleasant and [does not contain] offensive language”. He also stressed that NSW Police had no part in establishing the ban, with the RAS having made that decision independently; the board’s president, Michael Millner, reportedly expressed support for it. 

Police and Easter Show organisers have attempted to walk back an apparent ban on rap music at this year’s carnival, characterising it as a crackdown on offensive language and aggression rather than an entire musical genre, SMH report. 

Drill, a darker and grittier subgenre of rap, has long been targetted by NSW Police, along with its Sydney practitioners. On Wednesday, however, Royal Agricultural Society of NSW chief executive Brock Gilmour said organisers, not police, took the decision to prohibit music that contained offensive language or “aggressive tones”. He said he did not want mums, dads and children hearing swear words at a family event.

NSW Council of Civil Liberties president Josh Pallas said it was an example of the over policing of marginalised communities. “In a way it’s thought-policing because rap music is just another instance of free expression,” he said.

In 2020, it was revealed that the NSW Police had been given a quota of more than 240,000 searches, including strip searches, during the 2019 financial year, ABC News Sam Nichols reports. 

The following year, they had additional quotas to issue almost 110,000 move-on directions and detect 305,000 crimes, despite a fall in crime rates across most categories between 2019 and 2021.

But by 2022, the police scrapped the controversial target-based strategy after facing heavy criticism from legal groups and civil libertarians.

Reforms in mandatory death penalty legislation could see reprieves for 1300 prisoners on death row. 

The Malaysian Parliament has approved a bill that would eradicate mandatory death penalty sentences for serious crimes. Currently, the death penalty is mandated for crimes such as murder, drug trafficking, treason, kidnapping, and acts of terror. The Courts, under this new Bill, would have the discretion of handing down sentences between 30-40 years, which would also replace natural life imprisonment. 

Australia’s Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, declared that there was ‘nothing to be feared’ as she spoke alongside members of the Referendum Working Group and Referendum Engagement group after the constitutional alteration for the Indigenous Voice to parliament was announced by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. 

If passed, the Voice to parliament will become enshrined within the Australian Constitution and formally recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First peoples of Australia.

Burney describes that the two critical points of consideration for the ‘yes’ vote, would be recognition and consultation, stating that this referendum was imperative for ‘completing our nation’s birth certificate’ and acknowledging that the life outcomes for First Nations people was ‘completely unacceptable’. 

Both major parties doubled down on their support for anti-protest laws after receiving news last week that a District Court judge had overturned a 15 month prison sentence given to activist Deane Violet Coco last year, City Hub's Wendy Bacon Reports.

The NSW Greens however have vowed to continuing pushing for the repeal of the laws, including in any balance of power negotiations while climate activists occupied Perrottet’s office and the City of Sydney repeated its call for the repeal of the laws and an end to police harassment of protesters.

Josh Pallas, President, New South Wales Council of Civil Liberties issued a media release thanking the City of Sydney.

NSWCCL supports the right to decide whether or not to receive a vaccine. We acknowledge that people have valid reasons for choosing to refuse a vaccination (including medical and religious reasons). NSWCCL also supports the objective that the broader community is deserving of the greatest level of health and wellbeing available to them.  This includes employers and business providing a safe work environment and complying with state and federal work health and safety laws, employees and other workers having the right to a safe work environment, and vulnerable and at-risk members of society who are susceptible to the effects of COVID-19 (e.g. the immunocompromised) being safe in the community.

In our view, the Bills in question, unreasonably and disproportionately protect the unvaccinated at the expense of the rights of other members of the community. Based on the generally accepted medical science, the Bills are incompatible with human rights.

NSW Council for Civil Liberties annual dinner will be held on 20 September at Sky Phoenix!

This year, we are fortunate to have Craig Foster as our 2023 annual dinner keynote speaker. We thank Craig for taking the time to come and share his valuable insights with us.

Craig is many things, a proud Australian, a former soccerroo, a broadcaster, Adjunct Professor for Sport and Social Responsibility, and an author, but notably, he is a human rights activist. 

His professional soccer career extended from 1988 to 2003, and his career on the socceroo national team was from 1996 to 2000. Following his retirement Craif went on to have an incredible 18-year, triple logie-award-winning career as a highly talented and respected sports broadcaster, most notably working for Australia’s multicultural broadcaster and the special broadcasting service. 

Craig’s deep commitment to human rights and social justice has made him an inspiring and influential figure to many. As a member of the Australian Multicultural Council, he worked across an array of social problems from indigenous rights and self-determination to domestic violence, climate change and gender equality. He is a vocal critic of the Australian Governments treatment of asylum seekers and thus, consistently works in refugee advocacy to lobby for effective change. 

Today, Craig advises on athlete activism and is an Adjunct Professor of Sport and Social Responsibility at Torrens University, teaching students how they can utilise sport as a vehicle for social justice and is the current NSW Australian of the Year for 2023. 

We look forward to welcoming Craig to our annual dinner. Tickets are available here.