style="float: left; border: 0; margin: 5px;" src="/images/censorG.jpg" alt="" A joint media release, signed by numerous liberties/freedoms bodies, has launched an escalation of the campaign to stop Communications Minister Stephen Conroy imposing censorship on adult Australians. Keep an eye out for TV ads on the same subject.

style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px; float: left;" title="Prof Les McCrimmon, head of the ALRC inquiry, with Dr Kristine Klugman, president of CLA, at a consultation about the Royal Commissions project in May 2009." src="/images/McCrimmonALRCKrisK090515.jpg" alt="Prof Les McCrimmon, head of the ALRC inquiry, with Dr Kristine Klugman, president of CLA, at a consultation about the Royal Commissions project in May 2009." Investigatory bodies acting for society - from community inquests through civil inquiries to national commissions - should involve panels, act in a coordinated way, and share resources, building a reservoir of intelligence and expertise over time, CLA says in its submission to the ALRC's inquiry into Royal Commissions. CLa also proposes a novel approach to the problem of excessive media reporting subverting the import of any inquiry. (Photo: Prof Les McCrimmon, head of the ALRC inquiry, with Dr Kristine Klugman, president of CLA, at a consultation about the Royal Commissions project in May 2009.)
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If the Rudd Government is to change the pension age from 65 to 67, it should also review other critical age limits, CLA's Raffaele Piccolo says. In particular, the voting age should drop to 17 (from 18) for today's better educated, better informed and better connected young Australians.

style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px; float: left;" title="Police 05" src="/images/Police05.gif" alt="" Naming guilty drink drivers in the media or online is just an extension of Australia's system of open and transparent legal processes, CLA says. Drink-drive convictions are increasing as police change from 'random' breath testing to targeted testing close to pubs and clubs.

SCAG - the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General - is allowing bikies to hijack its work program, CLA believes. SCAG is debating semi-fascist bike club laws from SA and NSW instead of dealing with a priority item on its work program, the massive over-representation of Indigenous Australians in courts and jails (25% of prisoners, less than 3% of the Australian population).

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.

Draconian, misleading and a possible invasion of privacy _ that's how Civil Liberties Australia webmaster and director Lance Williamson describes Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's mandatory internet filtering plans in this Canberra Times article.

Experts have formally reported to the Rudd Government that their proposed web censorship plans are 'fatally flawed', and that their web filter would fail., As well, ISPs are increasingly going public to point out major problems. When will Communications Minister Stephen Conroy listen to common sense and kill off mandatory public internet filtering?

Will federal public servants ban people's right to free expression in Geelong, at the Community Cabinet meeting in December, as they did in Adelaide in August? There, according to the South Australian Police Minister Michael Wright, public servants from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet posted notices on the school gates banning anyone taking a sign or banner into the meeting.

The Commonwealth’s conduct in legal cases is under pressure to improve amidst concerns it has a “win at all costs” approach, said the ‘Public Sector Informant’, the monthly newspaper ‘bible’ of the federal Public Service. Here’s the article, by CLA’s Bill Rowlings, that backs up that statement.

It comes as no surprise that Civil Liberties Australia has given the Government an "inconsistent" assessment on its human rights performance ("Rudd Labor 'inconsistent' on human rights: report", Canberra Times, October 4, p8).

Link: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2342462.htm

Should communities try to solve social problems by using CCTV cameras? Aurukun in the Gulf of Carpentaria is facing that dilemma, and has decided to put in 18 cameras (one for every 70 citizens) monitored 600km away in Cairns.