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As a human, you have inalienable rights - see ICCPR - and rights in Australian law, including in the Constitution. Some of the basic ones include:
- free speech: to speak openly on anything, provided you speak responsibly and do not infringe others' rights;
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- right to live freely and securely, and to develop yourself;
- to be treated equally with other citizens by authorities, and under the law;
- to move around freely, and to leave and return to Australia;
- to marry, choosing your own partner, and to raise a family;
- to work, with just and favourable conditions and hours, including reasonable rest, leisure and holidays;
- freedom to join a trade union, or to not join; and
- the right to share reasonably equitably in the economic, social and cultural rights of the community as part of an inherent dignity of person.
Resources:
- CLA policy on technology and civil liberties: see policy document.
Has 9/11 made us 'live differently'?
Article posted on Thursday 17 May 2012Do 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?
CLA defends our 'funny country' freedoms
Article posted on Wednesday 16 May 2012From a reader of our website: My opinion of your group is that it is all crap. Take a look at the Suburbs that have been taken over by Muslims. Do you feel sorry for the genuine Australians that live there and on occasions have been forced to leave?
Let the church be first among equals
Article posted on Sunday 13 May 2012In 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
Airport security: great theatre, but we're
doing the terrorists' work for them
Article posted on Sunday 06 May 2012
As Australia readies for new see-through – and mandatory – airport scanners from 1 July, international security guru Bruce Schneier has put the entire issue of "security theatre" in context with some apt examples. He explains that national transport authorities are actually doing the terrorists' work for them.
Airports: Govt must run security risk analysis
Article posted on Saturday 28 April 2012A Senate Committee is inquiring into proposed mandatory see-through scanners at airports from 1 July but doesn't have all the information it needs, CLA says. CLA is calling for a standards-based security risk assessment, an obligatory step under government protocols, which may or may not have been done for the controversial new devices.
Ghosts of COAG: the review that vanished
Article posted on Saturday 28 April 2012Anti-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.
Last 'assembly' law did not work, nor will this one
Article posted on Saturday 28 April 2012Dear Editor: your report (Bikie laws blow to club freedom) by Natasha Boddy. I support the veteran motorcycle club of WA joining a campaign against the proposed anti-bikie laws currently being debated in State Parliament. The laws go against the spirit of the Australian Constitution, which gives us all right of association.
Dead to rights: how an Aussie hero
framed the world’s conscience
Article posted on Tuesday 24 April 2012
Heroes and heroines emerge in war and in peace. A forgotten Aussie hero, brave on the front line at ANZAC Cove in April 1915 and resolute in framing the world's human rights 30 years later, has left a personal legacy which even today continues to shape a better world. CLA's CEO Bill Rowlings tells the story.
Territory citizens are second-class Aussies
Article posted on Tuesday 10 April 2012Citizens of the ACT and NT are second-class Australians, and are forced to endure that status by Australian law. In any review of the ACT (Self-Government) Act 1988 of the Commonwealth – the legislation which set up the current ACT system – is it is of fundamental importance that ACT citizens gain equal rights in their own 'state' and nation to those of all other Australians, CLA says.
Mental health bill heads in wrong direction
Article posted on Wednesday 21 March 2012The proposed WA Mental Health Act aims to deliver "best possible treatment and care", but the Bill does not reflect these noble words, says CLA lead author Rhys Jones. Rather than enhancing people's rights, the draft Bill actually increases the the ability for the State to treat people against their will, making life easier for the health bureaucracy rather than better for the mentally ill.
Airport scanners: your freedom has flown
Article posted on Monday 05 March 2012
Plans to introduce see-through scanners at airports don’t allow you any choice, like frisking or pat-down as alternatives. The scanners are bad in principle, will cause delays and produce false positives, and they create a head-on assault on Australians’ civil liberties. They are also a waste of taxpayers’ money, hundreds of millions of dollars of it – you can email/SMS/Tweet the Minister with your thoughts (details are on screen in the video). If you like, you can join CLA or donate so we can continue this campaign and others to help protect Australians’ rights and freedoms - click here.
Click here for the Freedom Has Flown video telling the real story of what’s wrong with Australia’s proposed airport scanners.
Have your say on same-sex marriage
Article posted on Sunday 04 March 2012Federal parliament is considering two bills on same-sex marriage. Here's how to have your say to the parliamentary committee inquiring into the issue...plus we have a handy Spot-The-Difference comparison between the bills.
ABS is Big Brother-like in new surveys
Article posted on Thursday 01 March 2012
CLA has received many requests over the past few months for information about people's civil liberties and rights in relation to surveys by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The ABS is becoming more like Big Brother in its approach, it seems, in two major surveys currently under way into Health, and Financial/Utilities. Here's a report of a recent interview...
We need to fight so the net can set us free
Article posted on Tuesday 21 February 2012
A new book, by an author with experience cross-cultures in the West and the East, argues that a global struggle for control of the internet is under way. At stake are no less than civil liberties, privacy and even the character of democracy in the 21st century, author Rebecca MacKinnon says.
Public wrong to think judges soft on crime
Article posted on Saturday 11 February 2012Judges 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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