Secrecy is the golden staph infecting government and bureaucracy throughout Australia. CLA often rails against it in whistleblowing, FOI, federal police and ASIO areas, but here’s medical proof of how bureaucratic control freaks in government are harming…
The Rudd Government’s approach to same-sex civil unions proposed by the ACT Government has turned out to be consistent: consistently hypocritical. This article explains the background, just as the ACT’s watered-down legislation is about to be debated.…
A bill prohibiting discrimination and bias by health insurers and employers based on people’s genes has passed both Houses of the US Congress by a vote of 509-1. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act is a powerful shield for Americans. Meanwhile,…
A strategy roundtable in Sydney in June aims to corral NGOs into sticking to agreed key messages during the upcoming national debate over a charter of rights and responsibilities for Australia. The roundtable, sponsored by HREOC and a law centre at UNSW,…
The ACT Human Rights Act, recently strengthened with a right to Supreme Court action, has been little used since becoming law on 1 July 2004. Is lack of awareness and understanding among magistrates, judges and lawyers the reason?
Judges wait for the r…
Special Minister for State, Senator John Faulkner, explains in this speech – at the launch of the Australian Privacy Awards – how stakeholder consultation and a new ‘Pathfinder’ process within APEC will be used to establish robust and workable internatio…
Who is being wrongly convicted in 2008, asks Keith McEwan as he reviews a book by and about a woman who spent virtually all the 1990s behind bars, wrongly convicted. Framed by a police officer in a conspiracy with her own husband, she needed enormous str…
The UK’s High Court has delivered a withering rebuke to the British Government, senior Ministers and the Serious Fraud Office. Neither government nor the executive – or foreign princes – are above the law in a parliamentary democracy, the High Court has…
Apathy and cynicism were real problems in Australia, brought on by the ‘downsides’ of the Haneef fiasco over intelligence in policing agences, the Attorney-General warns. He lists three areas where Australia can improve: none involves more draconian anti…
Prof George Williams delivered the keynote address at the 2008 CLA AGM on 5 April, on why Australia should have a human rights charter. The previous day, Prof James Allan of U. Qld, argued the opposite. Here, for consistency, are two sides of the argumen…