The Identity-matching Services Bill 2019 (IMS Bill) authorises the Department of Home Affairs (DOHA) to create and maintain facilities for the sharing of facial images and other identity information between government agencies, and in some cases, private organisations.

The unusual recommendation to entirely redraft the Identity-matching Services Bill 2019 and significantly amend a supporting bill for automating passport data sharing came after expert evidence that the planned expansion lacked necessary safeguards.

A major international human rights group has slammed Australian governments, state and federal, for their failure to uphold the rights of First Nations people in its 2023 World Report.

Human Rights Watch highlighted Indigenous youth incarceration among a number of areas of grave concerns in Australia in the report released this week.

Bikie boss Nick Martin's murder at a speedway in Perth left police wanting evidence in the form of QR code check-in data from the contact tracing apps of 2,439 fans who attended the December 2020 race, Yahoo News reports. 

A government order requiring people to share information in case of a virus outbreak meant anyone who checked in that day left their name, phone number and arrival time through the SafeWA COVID-19 app or on paper.

Police issued an "order to produce" the details to the state Health Department two days after Martin was shot and killed.

Climate activist Deanne ‘Violet’ Coco was freed on Tuesday after spending 10 days in Silverwater Women’s Prison, seven of which were in isolation, City Hub's Wendy Bacon reports. 

Coco was the first person to receive a prison sentence under the new laws. Four other climate activists have been sentenced to prison for other protest offences in NSW this year. There are more than twenty other climate activists arrested under the new anti-protest laws who could also face time in prison.

More than 230 civil society organisations have joined together to condemn the sentencing of local climate defender Violet Coco in an effort coordinated by Counteract, Wage Peace and other grassroots activists, a diverse coalition of organisations have made known, via an open letter, that they not only condemn Coco’s prison sentence, but further the Perrottet government’s anti-protest regime, which led to this dramatic escalation in punishing nonviolent climate protest.

The signatories include the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW, the Human Rights Law Centre, the Maritime Union of Australia, the National Justice Project, Amnesty, Liberty Victoria, Extinction Rebellion, Pride in Protest and Free Gaza Australia.

Violet Coco was sentenced to 15 months in jail with an eight-month non-parole period for stopping a lane of traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in April this year for 25 minutes. She was refused bail pending her appeal to be heard in March 2023 by Magistrate Hawkins on 2 December. The sentence has been labeled as ‘disproportionate’ by human rights advocates and condemned by civil rights groups and unions, The Echo reports. 

Yesterday the refusal of bail decision was overturned by Judge T Gartellman and Violet was released from jail on a good behaviour bond, $10,000 bail and a series of other conditions including weekly reporting to police, and no entering greater metro Sydney except for court

Judge Timothy Gartelmann rejected the Crown’s arguments on December 13 and released climate activist Violet CoCo, on bail, pending her appeal on March 2, 2023.

CoCo has been held in Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre for 11 days.

More than 200 organisations, including, CIVICUS, UnionsNSW, Australian Conservation Foundation and Oxfam, as well as prominent individuals representing millions of people across the country have united to condemn the recent 15-month jail sentence for climate activist Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco in NSW and to express concern about increasing repression, including the recent introduction of new anti protest laws in multiple states.

NSWCCL believes facial recognition technology presents a unique and wide-ranging threat to cherished values of privacy and autonomy. The possibility of ubiquitous intrusive surveillance is fast becoming a reality without necessary public discussion and legal guardrails.

NSWCCL therefore welcomes the Facial Recognition Model Law Report produced by the Human Technology Institute at University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and joins the Report’s call for:

• the Attorney-General to introduce a bill into the Australian Parliament, based on the FRT Model Law;
• the Attorney-General to assign regulatory responsibility to a suitable regulator and empower that body to create facial recognition standards
• the Attorney-General to initiate a process with his state and territory counterparts to ensure that the law on FRT is harmonised across all Australian jurisdictions
• the Attorney-General to establish an Australian Government taskforce on facial recognition to ensure development and use of the technology accords with ethical and legal standards

Deanna “Violet” CoCo knew her fate. In March this year, the 32-year-old climate activist gave an interview about her work with the group Fireproof Australia. In an interview, she seemed to predict the 15-month jail sentence she would be handed for a 28-minute protest.

“There is a lot of power in our system that is governed by capital, and specifically in the fossil fuel industry. And that capital, you know, influences our politicians,” she said.

“I expect that there is no possible way to win without that power trying to repress us. You know, I am expecting that and I’m expecting it to get a lot worse before it gets better.”

Sydney street personality Danny Lim says he is “not OK” and is still using walking sticks to get around after being thrown to the ground during a “discontinued” arrest by New South Wales police officers two weeks ago, The Guardian's Tamsin Rose reports. 

Speaking to Guardian Australia from his home where he is recovering after being released from St Vincent’s hospital, Lim said he had been “up and down like a yo-yo” after suffering a bleed on the brain and neck injuries.

NSW government minister Alister Henskens has stood by the state’s anti-protest laws that sent his own niece, Deanna Coco, to prison for up to 15 months, declaring “nobody is above the law”.

Henskens, the Minister for Enterprise, Investment and Trade, voted for legislation in March that made obstructing roads or transport routes an offence carrying up to two years’ imprisonment, SMH's Michael Koziol reports. 

Last Friday, a young woman who briefly blocked one lane of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in a protest over governments’ refusal to halt climate change was jailed for 15 months and then denied bail for an appeal, WSWS's Mike Head reports. 

NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Josh Pallas condemned the ruling, pointing out: “Peaceful protest sometimes involves inconvenience to the public. But inconvenience is not a sufficient reason to prohibit it.”

Josh Pallas, President of NSW Council for Civil Liberties, discusses the recent jailing of environmental activist Violet Coco under the NSW government's anti protest laws with Colin Hesse from Radio Skidrow.

For more information, listen to the full interview.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet may be pleased that a Sydney magistrate jailed protestor Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco on Friday but he is out of step with international and Australian human rights and climate change groups and activists. City Hub's Wendy Bacon reports. 

On Monday, protests were held in Sydney, Canberra and Perth calling for the release of Coco who blocked one lane of the Sydney Harbour Bridge for half an hour during a morning peak hour in April. She climbed onto the roof of a truck holding a flare to draw attention to the global climate emergency and Australia’s lack of preparedness for bushfires.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has launched its initial scoping report for a National Anti-Racism Framework.

In March 2021, the Commission released a proposal for a National Anti-Racism Framework in response to enduring community calls for national action after heightened experiences of racism and racial inequality in recent years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposal contained guiding principles, outcomes and strategies to begin a national conversation about anti-racism action.

Peaceful protest should never result in goal!

1pm today, 5 Dec

Parliament House Sydney

More information here.

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties is shocked to hear that Violet Coco, a Fireproof Australia protestor, was sentenced to 15 months in custody with a non parole period of 8 months for engaging in peaceful protest.

We understand that she was charged with offences of disrupting vehicles, interfering with the safe operation of the Harbour Bridge, possessing a bright light distress signal in a public place, failing to comply with police direction and resisting or hindering police. All of these charges arose from her blocking one lane of traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for approximately 25 minutes.

Peaceful protest should never result in gaol time. The NSW Council for Civil Liberties was shocked to hear that, that Violet Coco, a Fireproof Australia protestor, was sentenced to 15 months in custody with a non parole period of 8 months for engaging in peaceful protest.

It is outrageous that the state wastes its resources seeking gaol time and housing peaceful protestors in custody at the expense of taxpayers. Protestors from Fireproof Australia and other groups have engaged in peaceful protest in support of stronger action on climate change, a proposition that is widely supported by many Australians across the political divide and now finding themselves ending up in prison. Peaceful protest sometimes involves inconvenience to the public.  But inconvenience is not a sufficient reason to prohibit it.  It's immoral and unjust.

Since 2001, we have seen an extraordinarily intensive period of legislative activity on law enforcement and intelligence gathering powers – possibly unrivalled in any other liberal democratic nation. We have seen the ‘anti-encryption’ Assistance and Access Act and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Amendment Act expanding the role and powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. We have seen the extension of ASIO’s extraordinary detention powers, which were due to expire in September 2020, until March 2021. And in 2020, we have seen the introduction of the International Production Orders Bill to allow sharing of data with foreign law enforcement and security agencies.