The auditor hints at significant reservations about the appropriateness of the ACT Policing annual report, and on how expenditure of about $122m is accounted for. As well, the report contains some hard-to-reconcile figures. The ACT Legislative Assembly needs to take a fresh and close look at the policing contract.

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CLA has launched a campaign to stop the Rudd Government imposting mandatoring internet filtering - censorship - on adult Australians' access to the internet. The campaign consists of a new website - http://www.censorfree.com.au/ - and a series of events, activities and media releases to be rolled out over the coming few months.

The government wants to stop children accessing pornography, a move CLA is entirely in agreement with. But the government has backed down on a promise to do so under an 'opt-in', voluntary system for parents, and instead plans to impose mandatory censorship, cutting adult Australians' access to information (and dramatically reducing internet speeds as a by-product).

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Over just four days in April 2006, two young men died while while being restrained by WA Police (WAPOL) in Perth. At the inquests, the coronial service recommended changes that might avoid such deaths. CLA is monitoring their implementation, which so far has been patchy, five still being "under active consideration" half a year later.

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Link: http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/08307-etn-tortured-justice-web.pdf

Human Rights First has released a seminal study of the use of 'coerced evidence' by the US Administration to prosecute terrorists. This 72-page publication, meticulously footnoted, gives chapter and verse on where and how America has gone wrong in its blinkered battle against terrorism, using its own brand of terror because, under President Bush, it knows no other way.

28 Sep 07:The ACT Policing annual report for 2006-7 shows the force improved its performance in some areas during the year, but continues to fail in others. As well, ACT Policing still refuses to operate formally under Public Interest Disclosure laws, Territory environmental/greenhouse rules and regulations, and the ACT Human Rights Act.

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Police Minister Corbell is yet again trying to 'spin' the poor performance of ACT Policing and the level of complaints made against it last financial year (Ombudsman reports 17pc rise in police complaints -Canberra Times 26 Sep).

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The contract between the ACT Government and the AFP to deliver police services in 2007-8 has jumped to $117.3m, up $19.4m. But performance targets have been either dropped this year or tweaked so that police accountabliity is reduced significantly. CLA calls for the ACT Auditor-General to review all aspects of the police contract in this detailed analysis.

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Australia's National Capital police force - a 'business unit of the Australian Federal Police - fail by their own performance standards, a detailed CLA analysis of their annual report shows. They appear more interested strategically in image than policing, and fail to disclose important information to the public and media.

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