The New South Wales Government parliamentary inquiry examining the 13-year-delay in commencing legislation to protect Indigenous cultural fishing has handed down its findings.

In 2009 the Fisheries Management Act was amended by the NSW Government to acknowledge Aboriginal people's unique cultural connection to sea and inland waters and to protect and promote Aboriginal cultural fishing. A special provision, section 21AA, was also introduced which was intended to protect Aboriginal people from compliance actions for fishing offences if they were undertaking cultural fishing. The Chair's forward sums it up. "Thirteen years later, section 21AA has still not been commenced, and extraordinarily, the will of the Parliament has failed to take effect." 

The NSW Greens have written to the NSW Police Minister, Police Commissioner and Attorney General to voice great concern about the recent activities of NSW Police. It has been report over the last week, over 40 people across Australia have been visited, searched or questioned by police in relation to protests around the IMARC Conference in Sydney.  

We thank Councillor Yvonne Weldon for taking the time to attend our dinner to Welcome us on behalf of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council. It was an honour to have Cl Weldon join us on Gadigal Country and invite us to work with the local Aboriginal community in the important work that is do be done to bring about positive change through truth telling and a First Nations Voice to Parliament.

We also thank Senator The Hon. Jenny McAllister for attending our dinner and introducing Mr Mayor.  Senator McAllister has been a long time friend of NSWCCL and constant defender of human rights and civil liberties.

This year our committee decided that the Council should use our Annual Dinner as a platform to publicly endorse both the Uluru Statement from the Heart and a YES vote in the upcoming referendum enshrining a First Nations voice to the Parliament. What better way to do this than invite Thomas Mayor, Torres Strait Islander man born in Garramilla (Darwin) and a passionate advocate for the Uluru Statement to deliver our keynote. Mr Mayor said “I know I’m among friends here tonight. I invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.” Forged from more than two centuries of hardship and struggle, the Uluru Statement gives hope to a nation born from many nations, that we may find our collective heart.

NSWCCL adds our voice to the call on the NSW Parliament to reject a proposed amendment to fisheries law, declaring it an attack on Aboriginal people’s fundamental human right to practice their culture and fish in accordance with their law and custom.

NSWCCL understands that in a disturbing NSW Police operation over recent days, activists from a range of groups and networks have received unannounced visits by police to their homes. These visits have been occuring in NSW, Victoria and Queensland. People have been questioned about whether they plan on attending any protests connected with the International Minerals and Resources Conference scheduled to be held in Sydney over 2-4 November. The purpose of these visits, it appears, is to pressure people against participating in peaceful protest.

The President of the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, Josh Pallas, today condemned the actions by prison officers at a Queanbeyan facility that prevented the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment from making an unannounced visit to the facility. 

On 16 October 2022, a motion was put to the floor of the Labor Conference by the Australian Services Union which called for the Labor party to ‘scrap the NSW government’s anti-protest laws if they win government next year.

It is troubling that the NSW Police Minister, Paul Toole has not ruled out expanding the use of facial recognition technology currently deployed by NSW Police to include the practice of predictive policing. In a recent NSW Parliament budget estimates hearing Minister Toole said “The NSW Police Force continually reviews new technology to assist police in their role, and will consider expanding the use of technology, as required”.

There are serious fears the privacy of everyday Australians could be in jeopardy under a data-sharing deal with the United States.

An intelligence treaty between the two nations will soon allow law enforcement agencies to share information. The agreement will give officers rapid access to US-hosted data to fight terrorism, child exploitation and human trafficking.

But NSW Council for Civil Liberties President, Josh Pallas said the agreement would gravely undermine privacy.

Today, two women from the flood and fire-impacted NSW mid-north coast launched a Constitutional challenge to new anti-protest laws to preserve the democratic freedoms of speech and assembly in NSW.  Represented by the Environmental Defenders Office, the Constitutional challenge has been filed in the NSW Supreme Court.

Dominique and Helen, the two wildlife carers and members of the "Knitting Nannas" group at the centre of this case will ask the Supreme Court to declare new sections of the Crimes Act 1900 unconstitutional as they impermissibly burden the implied freedom of political communication of the NSW community. Both Dominique and Helen have been at the frontline of Australian climate impacts, experiencing the devastation, trauma and loss from drought, fires and floods in the last four years alone. 

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