'In a setback for the defence, top-secret evidence will be allowed in the prosecution of Bernard Collaery, who exposed Australian spying in East Timor, an ACT Supreme Court judge has ruled,' reports Greg Barns.

The article quotes NSWCCL: "Here we have two people who told the truth, in the public interest, about Australia’s deplorable (and probably illegal) bugging of a friendly nation for commercial gain."

More information: read the full article

'LGBTQIA+ advocates are celebrating the end of a bill put forward by NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham targeting trans and gender diverse young people, as the state government release a report outlining their opposition to the legislation,' reports Leigh Andrew Hill.

'NSWGLRL led the effort to creating a joint statement against the bill early in its history. The joint statement was a diverse group of community and civil society organisations in NSW, from the Teacher’s Federation, NSWCCL, NCOSS, Youth Action, ACON and more.'

More information: read the full article

Sydney Criminal Lawyers writes that Home Affairs 'is pressing for laws to streamline and hasten the abilities of foreign intelligence agencies, when agents are investigating Australians abroad, as well back here. And while some of these reforms are welcomed, others invoke the term “creeping surveillance state”.

The article quotes from submissions to the CROM Bill review, including the NSWCCL submission, which raised a concern that: 'the wording of these sections is so broad that it could lead to citizens being surveilled due to activities that aren’t terror-related, such as being part of a community fundraising event'.

For more information, read the full article.

Our President Pauline Wright spoke to The Age about paper giant Visy electronically tracking workers at a NSW plant, asking whether the trackers were appropriate for the intended purpose. A union official who had also been asked to wear a tracker commented that Visy's actions 'appear intended to discourage their employees from being union members'.

Ms Wright said:

“In this case, it’s probably legitimate to propose perimeter controls … [but] requiring people to wear a device that locates them inside the premises ... it would seem to be disproportionate,” Ms Wright said.

“It sounds pretty invasive to me.”

Read the full article

Our president Pauline Wright voiced her concerns about the National Security Legislation Amendment (Comprehensive Review and Other Measures No 1) Bill 2021, which will expand the reach of Australian intelligence, to Sydney Criminal Lawyers. 

Our ex-president Stephen Blanks spoke to The Big Smoke about the need for a constitutional Bill of Rights for Australia. The article points out that the Australian Constitution protects only a handful of our human rights and for decades the major political parties have ignored calls to implement a Human Rights Act. 

Dr Martin Bibby, co-convenor of our Asylum Seeker Action Group, spoke to Sydney Criminal Lawyers about Independent MP Andrew Wilkie's Ending Indefinite and Arbitrary Immigration Detention Bill 2021.

Commenting on the Religious Discrimination bills, our President Pauline Wright told Scott Levi: "Sadly these bills do or would allow people to override existing human rights protections and anti-discrimination laws and effectively give a licence to discriminate in the name of religious freedom. So people’s fears in that regard are founded. In my view, it is a flawed proposal because it basically puts religious views above other sorts of human rights that are really important" Pauline told Scott.

'Controversial legislation paving the way for a significant expansion in the sharing of public sector data will return to Parliament this week with significant amendments and newfound support from the Opposition,' writes InnovationAus. It notes that the legislation 'offers a “new path” for the sharing of data held by the federal government currently blocked by secrecy provisions'.

The Bill, in the works for nearly four years, had 'not moved since Labor labelled it “deeply flawed” and signalled it would vote against it in April last year' but is now listed for debate this week.

Our concerns about the bill were raised in the article, along with those of other civil and digital rights groups:

The New South Wales Civil Liberties Council said it was “fundamentally flawed and violates community expectations”, and that it could enable “the robodebt scenario in an accelerated form”.

Read the full article: Reworked data-sharing legislation returns to Parliament with Labor’s support

Our president Pauline Wright told SBS: "When you've got the ability to make a statement of belief that is going to be exempt from anti-discrimination laws, you've got something that is fundamentally flawed."

However, the Senate Inquiry recommended that 'the draft religious discrimination bill should be passed by the Senate after amendments to some of the more contentious sections of the bill'. The article notes dissent from Liberal, Labor and Green MPs, adding that 'Critics of the bill said they do not think problematic sections like section 12 on the statement of belief can be improved' calling for a 'complete overhaul of legislation'.

MS Wright noted that the whole process has revealed the importance of having a national Human Rights Act - or Bill of Rights - to deal with the issue of competing rights.

"In our view the bill should be withdrawn and taken back to the drawing board. And consult with the people who are going to be affected by it," she said.

"Consult with the LGBTI community as well as religious groups, and ensure all the competing rights are properly taken into account - because at the moment, they're not.

Full article: Religious discrimination bill should be passed with caveats, two inquiries recommend