Letter: Bring Julian Assange home
Though he is not convicted of any offence under UK law, Julian Assange continues to be held as a prisoner in the same conditions as convicted murderers. His mental and physical health have been seriously compromised.
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties has written to the Prime Minister calling on the Australian Government to bring home Julian Assange and exert its diplomatic influence to end his unjust prosecution.
Similar letters were sent to the Leader of the Opposition and the Parliamentary Friends of the Bring Julian Assange Home Group.
Read moreNSW Council for Civil Liberties raises concern that affirmative consent laws could backfire
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties (CCL) welcomes the NSW Attorney General taking measures to address confusion around consent in sexual assault matters, but urges caution around proposed changes to the law.
“Consent is an inherently difficult issue to determine in the courts,” said CCL President, Pauline Wright “and will remain so no matter how the law tries to define it. We have to be very careful about how we define consent, because changes could backfire.”
“Clarifying that a person is entitled to withdraw their consent at any time or to give consent to one kind of act but not another is a good idea, but care must be taken to ensure that changes do not have unintended consequences” said Ms Wright.
Read moreSubmission: Inquiry into environmental planning instruments (SEPPs)
The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the NSW Legislative Council Regulation Committee Inquiry into Environmental Planning Instruments (SEPPs).
NSWCCL makes this submission for a number of key reasons:
a. To ensure that adequate safeguards are in place for the creation of SEPPs in recognition that parliament is the supreme law making body in the state;
b. In recognition that the climate change poses a significant and increasing threat to the ability for citizens’ and others residents’ civil liberties and human rights, and that any decisions made which concern the environment should be appreciative of the adverse effects of climate change; and,
c. In recognition that First Nations communities voices should be recognised and afforded significant weight in the development of environmental and planning policy.
Read moreUrgent request: “legacy caseload” refugees
NSWCCL is asking its members, as a matter of urgency, to contact the Minister for Home Affairs, Karen Andrews, and/or the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, Alex Hawke, asking for more time for members of the legacy caseload to submit updated applications for asylum, before their cases are heard.
Read moreCommonwealth Ombudsman: Only nine of nearly 2000 accesses to LBS by ACT Policing were properly authorised
MEDIA RELEASE
NSWCCL is gravely concerned by a recent Report1 from the Commonwealth Ombudsman, which identified that many of the authorisations made by ACT Policing for access to telecommunications data between 13 October 2015 and 2019 were not properly authorised. Of the 1,713 individual accesses to location-based services (LBS) by ACT Policing for that period, only nine were fully compliant with the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (TIA Act).
Read moreLegal challenge to travel bans
Statement from President of NSW Council for Civil Liberties on Legal Challenges to Travel Bans
NSW Council for Civil Liberties welcomes the significant separate legal challenges commenced today to the travel bans.
Both the harsh criminal penalties facing returning Australians and the authoritarian exit bans are causing great distress for tens of thousands of people.
Read moreRule of Law webathon
Black Lives Matter - an Australian perspective
NSWCCL hosted Australia's contribition to the International Rule Of Law Webathon on Weds 5 May 2021. You can view our session with others from around the world on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmsQriH1wcIYhwON5ncdUuQ
Read moreIndia Travel Bans Unconscionable and Inhumane
PUBLIC STATEMENT BY PAULINE WRIGHT
The federal Government’s move to criminalise Australians travelling home from India, including massive fines and penalties of up to 5 years’ imprisonment is an extraordinary move and likely to infringe international human rights law. This will abandon Australian citizens to their fate in an utterly overburdened health care system in India. It is inhumane and unconscionable.
It is certainly not the only suitable way of dealing with the threat to public health. A less restrictive and intrusive way of protecting Australians would be to improve quarantine systems instead of criminalising our citizens who are doing nothing more than wishing to come home.
The Government’s move also looks discriminatory. While there can be no denying that the situation in India is critical, no such measures were taken for Australians returning from the United States, the United Kingdom or Europe during the height of their dire pandemic crises.
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Critics label data-sharing Bill as 'eroding privacy in favour of bureaucratic convenience'
Facing the Senate committee, probing the Data Availability and Transparency Bill 2020, was Jonathan Gadir from the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, who highlighted the discrepancy between the goals of the Bill and what it actually allows to occur.
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