The admission of eight individuals to the hospital due to MDMA overdoses at an electronic music festival in Melbourne has sparked renewed and pressing demands for nationwide pill-testing initiatives.

Of those affected at the festival, seven had to be placed in induced comas and required breathing tubes.

Victorian Health authorities have announced that the overdoses were not caused by a single bad batch, but instead the hot, humid conditions at the festival, paired with physical exertion. 

The hospitalisations have intensified the calls for increased pill testing, and for governments to address the complicated issue of festival drug use. 

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) expresses our deep concern over the recent police shooting of 34-year-old Alexander Stuart Pinnock in Nowra.

The recent spate of suspected MDMA overdoses at the Hardmission event in Flemington, Victoria, resulting in eight individuals being placed in medically induced comas, has reignited the urgent need for nationwide pill-testing programs.

Earlier this week, the NSW Supreme Court ruled that NSW anti-protest laws are constitutionally invalid.

These laws were enacted last year in response to a climate protest that caused traffic disruptions, criminalizing activities that cause obstructions, partial closures, or redirections around various major facilities, and carry a maximum penalty of a $22,000 fine, imprisonment for two years, or both.

'Knitting Nannas' Dominique Jacobs and Helen Kvelde challenged these laws, arguing that they did not uphold the implied freedom of political communication in the Commonwealth Constitution.

The court found that these new laws were not justified when protest activity caused people to be redirected or caused a facility to be partially closed. Therefore, those parts of the laws were deemed invalid.

As of 12 December 2023, the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) will be handed enforcement powers as part of the Respect@Work legislation. The new section 47C of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) applies a positive duty to any person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) or ‘employer’..

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr Anna Cody, hopes to shift the burden of progress in workplaces by holding employers legally responsible for failing to protect employees. The positive duty requires employers to take ‘reasonable and proportionate’ measures to eliminate sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. This includes unlawful conduct engaged in by themselves, employees, workers and agents, and even extends to third parties such as customers and clients.

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) congratulates the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism (the Special Rapporteur) on his appointment and thanks him for the opportunity to make a submission on his mandate priorities for 2024-26, and in particular on which of the 'new issues' identified by him should be a priority.

The Sentencing Council released a consultation paper in September 2023 seeking further submissions on key issues identified in preliminary research and analysis.  The NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) was grateful for the opportunity to make a submission in response to this consultation paper.

Our submission focussed on offences involving custody of knives and questions raised in relation to items 5 and 6 of the Terms of Reference, namely:

• consider whether offences for which penalty notices are available remain appropriate;
• consider whether the maximum penalties for the offences are appropriate with reference to other jurisdictions.

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) recently bestowed Honourary Life Memberships upon four exceptional individuals who have dedicated many decades to the relentless pursuit of civil liberties and human rights for all. This prestigious accolade serves as a testament to their unwavering commitment and invaluable contributions to the cause. 

The NSW Supreme Court has struck down part of a suite of tough anti-protest laws rushed through state parliament last year, ruling that criminalising activities that cause partial closures or redirections around ports and train stations was constitutionally invalid.

Climate change protesters Dominique Jacobs and Helen Kvelde, represented by the Environmental Defenders Office, launched a constitutional challenge last year to the new laws, which imposed a maximum penalty of a $22,000 fine, imprisonment for two years, or both.

Parts of harsh anti-protest laws passed in NSW last year have been found to be unconstitutional after a legal challenge by two Knitting Nannas protesters who argued they impermissibly burdened the implied freedom of political communication.

Two Knitting Nannas, Helen Kvelde and Dominique Jacobs, took legal action to defend the right to protest in October 2022, after the NSW Government passed new laws following a series of climate-related demonstrations.