Media coverage: NineNews, Sydney Morning Herald

NSWCCL President and former NSW DDP, Nicholas Cowdery AO QC, joins 29 prominent Australians as signatories to an open letter coordinated by The Australia Institute, calling for truth in political advertising laws that are nationally consistent, constitutional and uphold freedom of speech.

New polling by The Australia Institute released in conjunction with the open letter shows nine in 10 Australians (89%) say Australia should pass truth in political advertising laws. 

Signatories to the open letter include former political party leaders and politicians, Dr John Hewson, Cheryl Kernot and Michael Beahan; former Supreme Court judges, The Hon Anthony Whealy QC, The Hon Paul Stein AM QC and The Hon David Harper AM QC, as well as barristers, community leaders, business people and other prominent Australians.

'Australians want advertising to be truthful and transparent. They expect the media to self-regulate, and want laws that would penalise misleading and deceptive political ads with fines, forced retractions or losing public funding. The lack of truth in political advertising regulation is leading to declining public trust in government, politicians and parliament.

Enough is enough: we need truth in political advertising before the next election.

Political advertisements that are deceptive and misleading interfere with the public’s ability to make informed decisions.

We need truth in political advertising laws that are nationally consistent, constitutional and uphold freedom of speech.'

Read more or see the letter as published in the SMH (17th June 2020)

Refugee Week June 14 - June 20, is Australia’s peak annual activity to raise awareness about the issues affecting refugees and celebrate the positive contributions made by refugees to Australian society. Originally celebrated in 1986, Refugee Week coincides with World Refugee Day (20 June).

Refugee Week provides a platform where positive images of refugees can be promoted in order to create a culture of welcome throughout the country. The ultimate aim of the celebration is to create better understanding between different communities and to encourage successful integration enabling refugees to live in safety and to continue making a valuable contribution to Australia.

Media coverage: Byron Bay Echo

- Hans Lovejoy, editor 

'With attention fixated on injustice, policing and black lives, the NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) is just one voice of sanity in a country awash with racism and bigotry.

Based in Sydney, they are a small group of lawyers committed to educating the public and advocating for the most vulnerable. NSWCCL said in statement regarding the marches, ‘There have been 432 Indigenous deaths in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission – including the recent death of Tanya Day, which the coroner found to be preventable – and its recommendations have never been fully implemented.

‘To our knowledge, no one has ever been convicted in relation to those deaths. Indigenous peoples are over-policed and over-incarcerated, with adults 15 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous Australians and juveniles 26 times more likely to be incarcerated. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported in December 2019 that while Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up around three per cent of the total Australian population, they account for 29 per cent of the total adult prisoner population in Australia’.'

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The NSWCCL has written to the Commissioner of Corrective Services NSW, the NSW Health Minister and the CEO of Justice Health to express concerns in relation to the health and safety of persons in custody in NSW in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic.  

The Council notes that there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the inmate population and that 23 have been isolated for testing. We note that there was a confirmed case of a healthcare employee at the Long Bay prison hospital in March 2020. 

Media Coverage: Sydney Morning Herald

A former judge and top prosecutor says video footage of an Indigenous teenager falling face-first after being kicked off his feet by a NSW police officer is on its face "evidence of an assault".

Former NSW director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, QC, president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, said the video raised questions about the lawfulness of the arrest because the risk the teenager would carry out his threat appeared "slight".

"Arrest is really only lawfully available to prevent further offending, to prevent flight or to ensure attendance at court," he said.

In Mr Cowdery's view, it was not reasonable to use a sweep kick when the teenager was "under restraint and standing calmly". He believed the officer should be "charged with assault and re-trained".

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NSWCCL affirms our heartfelt support for the Black Lives Matter movement and its goals in seeking to eradicate systemic racism from our societies. We encourage all our members and those sympathetic to the cause of human rights and civil liberties to likewise support the BLM movement in any way reasonably possible.

NSWCCL has always acknowledged the pervasiveness of institutional racism in Australian society, ever present even 232 years after the brutal colonisation of this continent on racist terms. We strongly support all attempts to remedy this history of injustice and end the systemic disadvantage faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Foremost among the injustices committed against indigenous peoples are those perpetrated by the criminal justice system.

Discrimination and unreasonable violence at the hands of police is an ongoing concern, as the cases of David Dungay Jr and the incident in Surry Hills recently emphasised. There have been 434 indigenous deaths in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission – including the recent death of Tanya Day, which the coroner found to be preventable – and its recommendations have never been fully implemented. To our knowledge, no one has ever been convicted in relation to those deaths. Indigenous peoples are over-policed and over-incarcerated, with adults 15 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-indigenous Australians and juveniles 26 times more likely to be incarcerated. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported in December 2019 that while Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up around 3 per cent of the total Australian population, they account for 29% of the total adult prisoner population in Australia. 

NSWCCL calls for the implementation of the 1991 Royal Commission recommendations and the recommendations in the Uluru Statement from the Heart as a start in the ongoing struggle to end these shameful outcomes.

In relation to the protests on June 6, 2020, NSWCCL supported the right of people to rally in accordance with the decision of the NSW Court of Appeal authorising the assembly. It seems the protests were orderly and respected the public health imperative while remaining truly powerful. Police and protestor seemed largely to demonstrate appropriate respect and restraint. However, the worrying incident at Central Station involving the pepper spraying on protestors may raise serious questions.

Community anger and distress over the last-minute moves by the government and the police to prohibit the protest rally would not be so strong had it not been for the unexplained inconsistency in official responses. For example, a recent protest in Sydney boasted of thousands of attendees in clear contravention of the Public Health Orders and the government and police reacted very differently. There was also widespread confusion over the inconsistency between the response of the South Australian Government and Police to protests in Adelaide, which was to exempt that protest from the effect of the COVID-19 regulations, and the response in NSW. 

We urge all parties to bring their attention to driving systemic changes to achieve much needed justice for Indigenous Australians and continue exercising the restraint called for in a liberal society governed by the rule of law.

Media coverage: Sydney Morning Herald

A NSW Supreme Court judge has condemned the treatment of a 35-year-old Indigenous man with a mild intellectual disability who has been subjected to a tough supervision order restricting his movements for more than a decade, saying he has not been a "truly free man" since his teens.

The five-year extended supervision order (ESO) made by the court in 2009 was "still current, 11 years later" because the clock stopped running every time he was imprisoned for even minor breaches of conditions.

Former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, QC, who is now president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, said the legislation introducing ESOs and other orders "was radical and controversial at the time" and was based on "a risk of future offending of a serious kind" that was difficult to predict.

"It is a form of punishment for future conduct that may not occur. Nevertheless, Parliament has the power to legislate this way in order to protect the community, but within limits," he said.

Mr Cowdery said the laws provided "a powerful rod for the backs of disadvantaged or excessively targeted groups in the community, including Indigenous people, who may be subject to such orders".

"They become an easy tool for law enforcement to use to unreasonably seek to control such people."

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Media coverage: Canberra Times

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The Australian Government has released the Privacy Amendment (Public Health Contact Information) Bill 2020 (COVIDSafe Bill) which will be considered by Parliament this week. The COVIDSafe Bill largely reproduces the biosecurity orders which made it possible to begin to download and operate the COVIDSafe App (App).

The NSW, Queensland and South Australian Councils for Civil Liberties, along with the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, support the introduction of effective digital contact tracing if it is underpinned by robust privacy and transparency legislation.

The joint statement has been sent to the Prime Minister, the Attorney General and Opposition Leader, along with all MPs and Senators. 

Police officers who conducted strip searches of children hadn't been properly trained and didn't understand the law on what they were doing, a series of landmark watchdog reports has found.

The conduct of NSW Police officers in carrying out strip searches of teenagers at music festivals has been found to be unlawful in a series of landmark reports by the NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.