The Admininstrative Appeals Tribunal in the ACT has ruled that American defence contractors can break Canberra law, and discriminate against employees. The extraordinary ruling means US foreign policy and rules trump Australia’s own laws. CLA’s media rel…
An Algerian avionics expert, detained, on the USA-Canada border, six days before 11 Sept 2001: the innocent Benamar Benatta’s five-year saga of torture and despair nears closure as the Canadian Government prepares to negotiate compensation for the man, b…
A full bench of Federal Court has ruled that ASIO must tell deported peace activist Scott Parkin why they gave him an adverse security assessment. In 2005, the Australian Government cancelled Parkin’s visa and escorted him back to the USA. Now he can fin…
Money matters have a few; defence has many; health has a raft of them; but civil liberties does not have even one adviser in the court of PM Rudd. In this article, a US law professor argues the American President should have a civil liberties adviser: he…
Read the ‘closing argument’ by US Air Force Reservist Major, David Frakt (in civilian life, a law professor), who is the military counsel for Mohammad Jawad, only 17 when detained in Afghanistan. He is charged with injuring US soldiers in a war, an act…
Remember the American peace activist who got ASIO’s, the AFP’s and Immigration’s knickers in a knot, until they arrested him for viciously drinking a cup of coffee in Melbourne? The authorities still haven’t admitted any error – see his story as told for…
The NSW Parliament’s own legislative review body laments the absence of a bill of rights in Australia, and in NSW, in a new report. The NSW Legislative Review Committee also says that half the Bills presented to the NSW Parliament over the past five year…
Liberal MP Petro Georgiou adds his weight to the call for an independent review of Australia’s terror laws. CLA says we also need a benchmark statement of what Australia’s civil liberties are, against which we can measure the 50-plus anti-terror laws pas…
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,…