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Civil Liberties Australia
- Printed on Thursday 24 May 2012 from http://www.cla.asn.au/0805/index.php/accessjustice/
CLA's policy on Access to Justice

All citizens must have equal access to a fair and honest justice system, where individual and groups rights are safeguarded without fear or favour. Any court or tribunal must be independent, and free from external pressures. There must be adequate access for all to the justice system, or human rights are compromised.

Double jeopardy: CLA does not support legislation which permits charging a person twice for the same offence.

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Justice

Obama continues assaults on basic rights

Article posted on Tuesday 22 May 2012

President Obama began his reign as the hope of the civil liberties movement, but he ends a four-year term with a worse record than the President Bush he followed. Obama's remorseless assault on basic rights in America, Bernard Keane says, sets the tone for continuing loss of liberties and freedoms in Australia and globally as drone kills, loss of free speech and mass surveillance become 'normalised'.

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Has 9/11 made us 'live differently'?

Article posted on Thursday 17 May 2012

Do you think Australians have less freedom, less democracy, than 10 years ago when the planes crashed into New York's Twin Towers? Have terrorists changed the way Australians live? PM Julia Gillard said those questions were how we should test our decade-long, multi-billion response to terrorism. CLA asked the PM to set up a public inquiry to get the answers to her own questions...but she has declined to do so. They're important questions: what do you think?

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Open letter: errant father appeals for support

Article posted on Tuesday 15 May 2012

A father, who acknowledges his failings up front, wonders why Australia's most childish government agency continues to be commercially naïve while exercising unbridled power over individuals without legal charge, hearing or conviction. Keith Bettison tells his story…

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Let the church be first among equals

Article posted on Sunday 13 May 2012

In relation to anti-assocation laws in WA and other states: if the proposed clauses are made into law, then maybe the Catholic Church could be considered for the first case – doesn't the criminal activity of some of their clergy potentially put the church in the class of organization as defined in the proposed legislation?

Or is this proposed legislation only for people/organizations the government or police want to act against for their own reasons, or for political advantage?

Who is brave enough to promote such an alternate view, and propose that the state take action against the church (now I know how the Jews felt, and understand what Niemoller said).
– John Black, Melbourne

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Ghosts of COAG: the review that vanished

Article posted on Saturday 28 April 2012

Anti-terorrism laws, it seems, worry government more in prospect than reality. Passed in haste, with assurances about reviews later, these abusive laws have received no scrutiny as promised. Now even the idea of review has slipped into limbo, off the COAG agenda, Bernard Keane reports.

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Principles should guide Model approach

Article posted on Saturday 07 April 2012

"Laws without morals are useless" is the motto of a prestigious US university but not, it would seem, a guide for the Australian Governmnent in High Court litigation against the land and property rights of Aborigines. Barrister Ernst Willheim argues that the government should include human rights and non-discrimination principles in its Legal Services Directions so that a commitment to morality ensures just terms among justice for all Australians.

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'All-costs win' is a loss for rule of law

Article posted on Wednesday 04 April 2012

Noel McLaughlin (Letters 3 April 2012 Canberra Times) misrepresents (columnist) Jack Waterford’s position on the AFP. Jack was not criticising the personal bravery of individuals. Rather, what I understood him to be saying is that the AFP have been encouraged, both by sweeping anti-terrorism legislation, and the enthusiastic and uncritical support of a previous Attorney-General, to use their authority and resources inappropriately in a ‘win at all costs’ way. Little consideration seems to have been given to ensuring that those charged with enforcing the law, do so in accordance with what the law actually says, and not what they think it says.

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Stifling free speech OK, High Court says

Article posted on Thursday 01 March 2012

The High Court of Australia has delivered a blow to the solar plexus of the people of Palm Island. The court has ruled that an islander, now on parole, can have his free speech rights stifled because a Queensland law is nicely written...never mind that the law comprises an abuse of the universal right to freedom of speech.

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Plans galore, but short on targets, measures

Article posted on Tuesday 28 February 2012

The Australian Government's proposed National Human Rights Action Plan has some significant shortcomings, the author of CLA's submission on the plan, Rhys Michie, said. The "national" plan lacks contributions from NSW, Qld, SA, WA, Tas and the ACT; it downplays the role of human rights in counter-terrorism actions, and has few performance indicators, quantifiable targets or finite timelines.

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Public wrong to think judges soft on crime

Article posted on Saturday 11 February 2012

Judges are "in the thick of it every single day", the Chief Justice Tom Bathurst said in a keynote address to open the 2012 NSW law year. He refuted the "out of touch" charge often levelled at the judiciary, but called on the legal profession – including judges – to enliven the debate and ensure distribution of accurate, relevant and accessible information.

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New laws take us toward centralised control

Article posted on Friday 10 February 2012

New criminal laws are taking Australia significantly further down a path where citizens' lives are administered by a centralised database accessed by police and a security elite, CLA's CEO Bill Rowlings has told a parliamentary committee. Increasingly intrusive legislation is stripping away layers of personal privacy. It is time for a major national inquiry, CLA believes...the one proposed in our Australia Day letter to the Prime Minister.

Read CLA's Opening Statement and Submission »...

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On the death of a mother and her children…

Article posted on Thursday 19 January 2012

The anomalous situation of the Family Court in WA, and the need for better resourcing of family courts everywhere, are poignantly highlighted after the tragic deaths of a mother and her two children from a family caught in a long-running dispute. Peter Dowding explains the court's problems...

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Extradition to US is doubly doubtful

Article posted on Wednesday 18 January 2012

Mark Summerfield, a patent attorney, analyses the current UK alleged piracy/copyright extradition case with major international ramifications. As well, there's links to the NYT coverage of proposed new US laws which are even more draconian, and to an SMH story of the real-life experience of an Australian extradited and jailed in the US for a similar 'offence'.

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Principle is not for breaking

Article posted on Thursday 12 January 2012

I see that persistent apologist Jim Unkles is pushing new Attorney-General Nicola Roxon to act on pardoning the Boer War multiple murderers Harry Morant and Peter Handcock. He is offering to "brief her – that is, present his version of the 1901 court martial – claiming a miscarriage of justice took place in 1901.

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Law & order adjudged to need evidence

Article posted on Tuesday 10 January 2012

Just like any other government initiative, law and order measures – such as extra police, tougher penalties, etc – should be evaluated for cost-benefit success or cost-effectiveness by an independent agency, says crime bureau chief Don Weatherburn. And he says, we need a better informed public and more rigorous scrutiny by the media.

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