Issues for 2004

• HRMU - the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Gaol: towards an independent and public review
• the Internet and privacy
• NSW Ombudsman's review of sniffer dogs in NSW
• does Australia need a Human Rights Act?
• NSW AG's review of privacy in NSW
• ASIO powers and anti-terrorism laws
• national defamation laws

If you would like more information or you would like to help with any of these projects, please email UNSWCCL.

Issues we looked at in 2003

• double jeopardy: There are proposals in New South Wales and at the national level to change the common law principle of double jeopardy, which states that a person should not be tried twice for the same offence.
• the death penalty and terrorism: Many Australians, including Prime Minister Howard, seem to think it is okay to execute terrorists. This marks a significant change in Australia's long-standing and principled opposition to capital punishment. Australia has acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR which is aimed at abolishing the death penalty completely. The Council for Civil Liberties is opposed to the death penalty under any circumstances.
• music copyright and universities: music industry giants Sony, Universal and EMI have been taking action in Australian courts against university students whom they allege have illegally downloaded MP3 files.
• Senate reform: the Prime Minister has proposed constitutional change to the way legislative deadlock is resolved in Parliament.
• discrimination against same-sex couples in Federal law was recently determined by the UN Human Rights Committee (Young v. Australia) to be a violation of the fundamental human right of equality before the law. UNSWCCL has called on the Howard Government to end this discrimination against non-heterosexual Australians.
• abolition of short term prison sentences: the NSW Sentencing Council is looking into the impact of abolishing prison sentences of six months or less. UNSWCCL lends its qualified support to this reform.
• ASIO powers: the Senate has agreed to grant the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation the power to interrogate citizens who might know something about someone who might be a terrorist.
• transsexual marriage in Australia: it appears that the Federal government will not be appealling the decision of the Full Court of the Family Court that confirmed the declaration of the validity of the marriage of Kevin and Jennifer.
• Terrorism (Police Powers) Act 2002 (NSW): this particularly nasty piece of legislation grants special powers to police to detain and strip-search anyone over the age of ten who happens to be in an area where the police suspect terrorists are at work. The power to authorise the activation of such sweeping powers is not vested in a judicial officer, but rather in the Police Commissioner!!!
• prison lockdowns: there have been reports of an increasing number of lockdowns in NSW prisons. This might be an election strategy, to ensure that prisoners don't "make trouble" for the government during the campaign, or it might be indicative of a new Corrective Service policy.