Category: CLArion

CLArion Nov 2021: Headed towards an Australia we don’t want

Constantly, when Parliament sits and when it doesn’t, new federal issues emerge every week that cry out for an 'ICAC with teeth' to rein in the excesses of the big end of town (politicians and corporates), and a national Human Rights Act to restore some power to correct wrongs back to the little people of Australia. These needs will be present whichever major party wins the upcoming federal election, so it is important during the election lead-up to drive home public demands for these non-negotiable additions to how we can ensure greater morality and improved ethics in national governance in future.

CLArion Oct 2021: New law gives police power to pry and lie

There have been mass protests nationwide because police have the power to make people wear masks, and keep 1.5m from each other to minimise Covid-19 sickness and deaths. There have been NO public protests about a new national law approved last month that gives police the power to pry secretly into your electronic devices, change the information on them any way they like, and then charge/convict you on the “evidence”. All police forces have track records of telling lies, or twisting reality, to secure convictions: how in future will we ever know what is true, and what is ‘changed truth’?

CLArion Sept 2021: CLA success, new way to operate, SNF latest

CLA saw one of its prime recommendations adopted by the parliamentary Homelessness inquiry: we don’t often get a committee agreeing completely with us, but here we did. Also, the CLA Board has decided how we can operate more efficiently and therefore effectively in future, with details and the dates of a special general meeting set out in this issue. CLA member Barbara Etter and barrister Hugh Selby have exposed gross incompetence, and possibly worse, by the Tasmanian Office of the DPP and TasPolice in ‘evidence’ collected and filtered before tendering to the judge and  jury in the original trial of  Sue Neill-Fraser, now in her 13th year wrongly jailed. Her defence counsel was kept in the dark about some witness statements that could have helped her.

CLArion August 2021: Pandemic causes ill health to democracy, liberties

Once mass vaccination eases the pandemic, laws need correcting to restore democracy, civil liberties and human rights to Australians, CLA says. When C-19 broke out, our rulers first abandoned parliaments, which stopped meeting entirely. Then draconian emergency laws empowered politicians and police to act virtually without restraint. Soon, instantly imposed regulations, stemming from the unbridled emergency powers, saw us all locked in our homes, unable to work, travel cross-town or interstate ,or even choose to travel overseas, and with no prospect of tribunal or court appeal around special individual circumstances. Once the panic is over, we must restore Australians’ freedoms and liberties by demanding meaningful Human Rights Acts throughout the nation.

CLArion July 2021: Power battle over rights and Parliament’s role

Senate and Joint committees are fighting ongoing battles to reclaim power to the Parliament after years of dominance by the Executive,  the small group of Ministers and the Prime Minister who run the nation day-by-day. The Executive Ministers have wrestled power away from Senators and MHRs over decades and through both Coalition and Labor rules…but now parliamentary committees want to put human rights front and centre in all money bills, and also take control of supervising and approving delegated legislation (laws made without having to be passed by both Houses, usually written at the say-so of the Executive).

CLArion June 2021: Wrong priorities mean rights fight is harder

Governments’ abnormal priorities founded on warped ideologies and broken promises are skewing important decisions around liberties and rights issues. Citizens are having to fight for basic health and disabilities spending, and charities are under active national assault. However security services and matters military are being showered with excessive funds, while crime dogs get $0.5m each. With the pandemic sure to impose continuing stresses on daily living for another year or more, the nation is in the run-up to an important federal election, maybe just a few months away, in which it is hoped public values, personal morality and political philosophy may pay a greater role than personalities.