The processes of an almost 'secret' Senate Select Committee on Reform of the Australian Federation (SCRAF) should re-start completely, CLA says. SCRAF's inquiry was totally swamped by the August 2010 federal election: the questions asked of the committee are too important to be decided without extensive Australia-wide debate and discussion in the full glare of publicity.

Cyber-safety comes down to trusting parents to choose for themselves how much educating and monitoring is right for individual children in relation to web browsing (and bullying and other youth concerns), CLA says. The Australian Government's role is to help parents make a free choice, not to act as control freaks over parents' decision-making role and responsibility. Read submission »...

Australian drug policies are not working: criminals are getting richer, prison populations are swelling and there are major national health problems, including deaths from overdoses in every State and Territory. Surely, CLA says, it is time for the new National Drug Strategy 2010-2015 to learn from other countries and try new health-based carrots, rather than police-based sticks.

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Some airports overseas are rushing into service full body-revealing scanners. Australia trialled them in 2008 in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide: after a full report, the government had no plans to introduce them...until pressure in early 2010 from the USA after the "underpants bomb" fiasco. Four civil liberties groups (including CLA) and the Australian Privacy Foundation are asking the Minister to hold a full public consultation and privacy assessment, before deciding whether or not to introduce scanners here.

CLA congratulates the National Human Rights Consultation Committee for an excellent report and recommendations after an exhausting process. Now it is time for the politicians to respond in a bipartisan way to what the people clearly want - a clear and unequivocal statement of our rights and liberties as Australians, with the force of Parliament behind it.

style="float: left; border: 0; margin: 5px;" src="/images/POLLEY.jpg" alt="helen Polley" The proposed 'Independent National Security Legislation Monitor Bill 2009' has benefited greatly from the voluntary input of many civil liberties and human rights groups, including Civil Liberties Australia. The Overview of the parliamentary review committee's report is clear evidence of how crucial public consultation is in producing a better outcome than an original government draft.
Photo: Committee Chair, Senator Hellen Polley
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src="/images/SenateCtteeMelb090828.jpg" border="0" alt="Senate Hearing" hspace="5" vspace="5" align="left" Everything you own is suspect. With, say, $100,000 in assets, you have to prove you are not guilty of crime. Police - maybe using false identities - can go fishing in your tax files and your private bank records. As you try to fight to prove your innocence,  the government freezes all your assets, and you have no access to money. Welcome to Australia 2010. (Caption: Senators Hutchins, Parry and Fisher, CLA's Lance Williamson, Senate Committee Chair Senator Crossin and CLA's Bill Rowlings at the Melbourne hearing on 28 Aug 09.)

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Crime continues to trend down, but wobbly politicians still play the vote-seeking 'law and order' card, reacting to rabid media beat-ups. The latest serious crime bill lowers the bar for prosecutors, doubly punishes those who have already served time for their crime, and can even bankrupt someone who successfully defends himself against a bureaucrat-initiated witch-hunt.
Read CLA's submission » ...

Any new health records system must safeguard a person's ownership of their personal medical records, and their privacy from abuse or misuse of the information, CLA says in a submission to those designing the laws and rules around Australia's new Health ID system.

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The parliamentary committee system has worked well in the past, but is starting to develop stress faults under a much-increased workload. CLA's contributions to the House of Representatives Procedure Committee, and to the Chairs of Committees, suggest reforms and changes.

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