Telco giant Vodafone Hutchison Australia has admitted that an employee illegally accessed the mobile phone records of Fairfax Media investigative journalist Natalie O'Brien.

Vodaphone head of fraud COlin Yates admitted in an email from 2012, "If the issue relating to breaching the reporter's privacy by searching her private call records and text messages gets into the public domain, this could have serious consequences given it is a breach of the Australian Telecommunications Act."

NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Stephen Blanks called on the government to investigate the incident as a matter of priority.

"What's extraordinary is that the regulatory system is inefficient to find out about this blatant breach of law and one has to bear in mind that Vodafone's business is entirely dependent on a government license," Mr Blanks said. "It's very disturbing that one telecommunications carrier thinks nothing of breaching the privacy of its customers in order to find out information of commercial advantage to it."

Article: Vodafone admits employee accessed Fairfax journalist Natalie O'Brien's mobile phone records

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

The government's decision to take an additional 12,000 women, children and families, mostly from United Nations camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, has generally been well received...But a diverse group of refugee advocates, and Christian and Muslim representatives, have condemned suggestions Australia would favour members of persecuted minority groups, especially Christians.

Representatives of the Refugee Action Coalition, the NSW Council of Civil Liberties and the Lebanese Muslim Association issued a joint statement calling on the government "to be genuine with a humanitarian intention":

"In light of recent media reports regarding the discriminatory nature of the refugee intake, we are obliged to condemn in the strongest of terms the suggestion that priority should be given to people of one faith over another."

Article: PM seeks to smooth way for refugees

Source: Channel 9 News

Religious and community groups will join with councillors near Sydney's Lakemba mosque calling for a more constructive approach to the refugee crisis. On Wednesday the federal government announced Australia would increase its refugee and humanitarian intake by 12,000 permanent places and provide more than $40 million for United Nations efforts to deal with the Syrian crisis.

The Lebanese Muslim Association, the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, the Refugee Action Coalition several church groups and Muslim media advocates are expected to meet near Lakemba mosque on Thursday afternoon and call for the government to welcome all refugees, regardless of religion.

Article: NSW community groups rally for refugees

Source: Channel 9 News

Sydney bikie boss Sam Ibrahim's lawyer, Brett Galloway, has described a decision by the Federal Government to deport his client as "stupid politics".

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has signed papers ordering Ibrahim's deportation on the grounds he has failed the Government's character test for foreign nationals.

NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Stephen Blanks said the Government's decision would mean Ibrahim would not face justice for his alleged crimes.

"If he's found guilty, he would've served jail time in Australia and now we're proposing to let him free. That just seems bizarre. Never before has someone been deported or proposed to be deported before they even serve time for any criminal offences they've committed. That seems inappropriate. For the Minister to make the decision himself that somebody is guilty of a criminal offence and then apply the character test ... is really an abuse of our system."

Article: Sam Ibrahim: Plan to deport bikie boss deportation 'stupid politics by stupid politician', lawyer says

Source: ABC Online

The PJCIS report on the proposed change to the Citizenship Act, which would strip dual nationals fighting overseas of their Australian citizenship without conviction, has been released on Friday 4th September. Australia’s leading constitutional lawyers, human rights groups, ethnic community organisations, refugee organisations and human rights commissioner Gillian Triggs have all objected to part or all of the dual national bill as it was drafted.

In his statement, Stephen Blanks, President of the NSW CCL, notes:

"The committee’s first recommendation that the removal of citizenship without conviction would only apply to those offshore significantly cuts down the scope of what the government was trying to do. The way it was drafted it would have applied to significant numbers of people on shore so that is significant but the fact remains citizenship stripping is an inappropriate punishment."

"If people commit a criminal offence it doesn’t mean they should be deprived of their nationality or family should be deprived of their nationality. They should be brought to justice so the whole idea to use citizenship as a tool is really going to do nothing about the threat of terrorism."

Blanks went on to say that stripping people and their families of citizenship would only alienate them from the Australian community and be “counterproductive in our struggle against terrorism. It should not go ahead but it is much less dangerous than the government had originally proposed.”

Article: Convict first before dual nationals in Australia lose citizenship

Source: The Guardian

Dyson Heydon has decided to stay on as Royal Commissioner, despite intense Labor and Union opposition. After a series of emails were shown to have verified his acceptance and later rejection of attending a Liberal Party event calls were made for him to step down due to possible political bias in his handling of the commission. 

Heydon determined it was not the case that a "fair-minded lay observer" would conclude that he would be incapable of bringing an "impartial mind" to the work of the commission. However, others aren't so sure it will stand up to public scrutiny.

President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Stephen Blanks, notes, "There's obviously going to be a high degree of contention about whatever he recommends. Whether or not the recommendations withstand scrutiny in part will depend on whether the public have faith in his objectivity."

Transcript/Audio: Heydon may have misread public mood: Council for Civil Liberties

SEE ALSO:Dyson Heydon: Labor wants Governor-General Peter Cosgrove to remove trade union royal commissioner

Source: ABC AM Radio/ABC Online

In a recent announcement, the Australian Border Force (ABF) announced it was conducting a massive joint operation in the Melbourne CBD with police and transit officers. Th dramatic release from the ABF and Victoria police has raised serious questions about the extent of policing in the city.

The prospect of immigration officers conducting large scale operations to check visas around cities raises serious privacy and civil liberties concerns note the president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Stephen Blanks.

“Police forces generally speaking are not allowed to simply stop people and ask for ID. No state government has gone so far as to say that police will have a power to stop a person who has not engaged in any criminal activity to demand identity details, let alone any other information such as citizenship and visa details. One wouldn’t expect immigration officers would be roaming the streets of Melbourne, and if that were to occur it would make people very uneasy.”

Follow the link below to learn more about your rights and the true extent of power of the police and border patrol.

Article: Stopped on the street by border force? Six things you need to know

Source: The Guardian

Junaid Thorne, a self-styled preacher who has been supportive of IS, was jailed last week by a NSW court of appeal for flying under a false ID and buying tickets with a false ID. After a few days in Sydney’s Silverwater jail his lawyer Lydia Shelly said her client was moved to Australia’s highest security correctional facility, Goulburn Correctional Centre. 

Stephen Blanks, President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties said Thorne had not been convicted of any terrorism offences and should not be placed under maximum security. He went further to note that "The whole community should be alarmed because this could happen to anyone."

Article: Maximum security for preacher "unfair and unjust"

Source: SBS

Recent attempts by one NSW public school to initiate a prayer group register have been revealed alongside premier Mike Baird's proposed audit of school prayer groups, causing concern amoung parents and the public at large over government encroachment on religious freedom.

President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Stephen Blanks, called the move "thoroughly alarming". 

"There are many people in the Australian community that will have personal experience, or whose parents had personal experience, of adverse consequences that flow from registration of religious affiliation. That a NSW school principal can even suggest such a scheme suggests an appalling lack of knowledge of history, or a terrible insensitivity to the experiences of many in the community.  Religious freedom is protected under the Australian constitution, and that includes the right to practice religion privately. If religious activities are to be permitted in public schools, then they must be managed in a way that does not impinge on fundamental freedoms."

Article: NSW public school floated plan for student prayer group register

Source: The Guardian

There has been a dramatic rise in the number of guns across New South Wales, with currently greater than 850,000 registered firearms, averaging at about 1 gun for every 9 people. 

This recent trend has concerned lawmakers such as NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge, who has announced plans to introduce legislation to curb the steep increase in gun ownership. While Senator Shoebridge does not yet have the support of other parties, he does have support from Stephen Blanks, the president of the New South Wales Council of Civil Liberties.

"The Council of Civil Liberties has never been supportive of a right to bear arms or to own as many guns as a person wishes," he said. "You have to take into account the community interest in safety and there is a very, very strong, overwhelming interest in the community to be safe from gun crime, inappropriate gun use and the risk of guns being stolen and used illegally."

Article: Gun ownership figures for NSW show more than 850,000 firearms in private hands

Source: ABC News