Josh Pallas, President NSWCCL, unpacks how things may look for queer politics under the Albanese Government. Before the election Prime Minister Albanese committed to reintroducing a form of protection for religious persons from discrimination, while at the same time protecting queer students from expulsion from schools. Labor’s policy platform speaks to strengthening anti-discrimination laws, not weakening them. But until we see the details of any proposed bill we won’t know whether queer rights are curtailed or removed in favour of religious rights.

For more information, read the full article.

The awards for Excellence in Civil Liberties Journalism are a national program open to all journalists who have been published or broadcast in Australia between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023. 

“This is an opportunity to acknowledge the fantastic work local journalists are doing to support the advancement of civil liberties and human rights at a state and federal level. Journalists are so important in holding those in power accountable and must be celebrated.” Josh Pallas, President, NSWCCL said.

“We have tremendous diversity, depth and sophistication in the work being produced and it’s important to showcase this extraordinary talent.”

The last two years have been unprecedented in many ways, COVID 19, escalating natural disasters, dire warnings of catastrophic climate change, #MeToo, Black Lives Matter. It is of no surprise that there was significant anxiety and anticipation around the result of this year’s federal election, particularly for civil libertarians and human rights advocates.

It may seem strange that the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties are offering our views so late in the piece, but we were waiting to see whether the Albanese government would be in majority or minority and for the Senate composition to firm up. It now seems clear that it will be in a slim majority.

Attorney General Mark Speakman has finally proposed a response to the 2020 recommendations of the Special Commission into the Drug "Ice" (Ice Inquiry). His proposal is that individuals caught with illegal drugs for personal use would face a $400 fine or health treatment instead of being brought before the Court.

NSWCCL is pleased to finally see a response from the Attorney General. We are heartened to see his recognition that the current approach to drug policy in NSW is "clearly not working". 

However, we are disappointed to see that the Attorney General has chosen a path forward which is only a partial response to the sound and evidence based recommendations of the Ice Inquiry. 

On 1 June 2022, Attorney General for New South Wales, Mark Speakman, announced the appointment of former NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) President, Pauline Wright as a Magistrate in the Local Court of New South Wales.

NSWCCL congratulates Ms Wright, who joined NSWCCL in 1988, on her appointment and thanks her for her long service with the organisation.

NSWCCL joins the rest of the country in a united sigh of relief as the New South Wales
Parliament passes the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill. NSWCCL has campaigned for the passing
voluntary assisted dying since 1990.

On Wednesday 11 May 2022, the NSW Upper House voted to progress the NSW Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) Bill through to the next stage in the parliamentary process.

The majority was small (20 votes to 17) but the Bill will now progress to the “committee” stage next Wednesday.

The committee stage is where the opponents will put forward amendments designed to make the VAD law harder to access. They may also attempt to use this process to drag the debate out. Over 160 amendments were proposed in the Lower House, the majority of them hostile.

NSWCCL is a member of the NSW VAD Alliance and supports the considerable efforts of Alliance members such as Dying with Dignity NSW and Go Gentle Australia. We are all hopeful that the Bill will finally become law in the coming weeks and the people of NSW will have access to legal voluntary assisted dying.

See also Volunteering Assisted Dying - it's time, NSW.

Update 11 August 2022:

The parliamentary inquiry has published its report here and recommended that the Legislative Council proceed to debate the Road Transport Amendment (Medicinal Cannabis-Exemption from Offences) Bill 2021.

The committee elected not to take a position on the bill, despite substantive witness evidence relating to the impact of the current law, broad community support for the use of medicinal cannabis and the availability of exemptions in other jurisdictions.

NSWCCL made a submission to the NSW Legislative Council's Standing Committee on Law and Justice Inquiry Into The Road Transport Amendment (Medicinal Cannabis Exemptions From Offences) Bill 2021. 

NSWCCL supports the passage of the Bill, which addresses discriminatory, inequitable and out of date presence-based drug driving practices targeting medical cannabis patients. NSWCCL agrees that those patients in Australia who are legally prescribed medicinal cannabis should be exempted from prosecution for driving with Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in their system, unless there is clear evidence of impairment.

The TDI Bill was tipped to be tabled earlier this year, having largely slipped under the radar. NSWCCL has concerns that this Bill lacks some important privacy safeguards.

Background

The Australian government recently consulted the community on the draft Trusted Digital Identity Bill 2021 (Bill), a package consisting of a Trusted Digital Identity System (TDIS) and the Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF).  The draft Bill encompasses a federal accreditation framework for Digital Identity services which will enable the States and Territories and the public and private sector to use the TDIF and TDIS to verify the identities of people and businesses they deal with online. It also sets out the requirements that applicants need to meet to achieve accreditation. 

Currently, Australia Post, the ATO and OCR labs have been granted accreditation. The Australian Government is accrediting a number of other businesses under the TDIF as a part of testing the readiness of the Australian Government Digital Identity System to expand beyond the Australian Government.  As of this post, the Bill is yet to be introduced into parliament.