The US Supreme Court decision that companies may not hold patents over the human genome is a boost to women at risk of breast cancer in Australia, CLA says. A local law to ‘mirror’ the decision here should be known as the Parke-Heffernan Act, to honour…
People frequently ask Civil Liberties Australia about the rights/wrongs of vaccination. This statement/article sets out our formal stance, and explains why and how far we support proven immunisation campaigns, as well as withdrawal of children from pre-…
The national disgrace which is Aboriginal youth detention in WA is expanding
The sex offenders’ register is a very blunt instrument, which treats people who commit different offences in the same way. Coupled with the stigma of a “different” name, the impact of conviction on a lower range porn photo offender can be far, far great…
How we treat child refugees says a lot about us as a nation. We’re on a downhill slide, says Graham Macafee, and the prospects are we’ll end up with unthinkable cruelty to children, whereas now we’re just plain cruel, inflicting on children the type of…
The Royal Commission into child abuse opens today, with Australia firmly hoping it will shine a penetrating white light on hideous hidden practices of the past, and allow the nation to put very dark years behind us. But, as Rex Widerstrom cautions, not…
The Young Liberals, at their national convention in Hobart in early February, have called on Tony Abbott to allow a conscience vote of Liberal MPs if he is Prime Minister after the 2013 election, scheduled for September. Right on, says CLA, but all part…
A Senate Committee should reject totally the deceitfully-named ‘Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012’, CLA says. It is not needed, has dumb and dangerous definitions, would create more problems than it solved, and would effectively censor the…
The sexual abuse inquiry confessional Cartoon by Inkcinct
The Royal Commission into Abused Children will run into a minefield of conflicting rights and law: rules of evidence and of witnesses (including, perhaps, children), rights of the child, of reli…
Defence Minister Stephen Smith must immediately deliver his response to a major report, now a year old, which lays bare a half-century history of rape, sexual and physical, and administrative abuse in Defence. The report implicates currently serving sen…
