Australians have been denied the opportunity to restrict the power of the political elite by the Rudd Government’s failure to enact a national Bill of Rights, CLA says. Federal MPs who believe in individual rights should coalesce across political boundar…
The area of ‘racial vilification’ is fraught with making decisions on difficult nuances of free speech and individual and group rights. What’s important, Briant Tennant says, is that those responsible for anti-discrimination laws should not themselves d…
A former SAS soldier, the newest member of the WA Parliament, delivered a telling commentary on the erosion of civil liberties in Australia when he gave his maiden speech in March. “…a speech capable of making the hairs on the back of your neck stand up;
SA Premier Michael Rann, up for re-election in March 2010, is proposing that a defendant’s personal history should be revealed to juries – before they decide guilt or innocence – so as to send more people to prison. CLA and the SACCL, plus most other kno…
Victoria is one of the more enlightened states in looking after Indigenous people…but still the statistics are appalling, as this analysis by Keith McEwan (pictured) points out. “Life is not so good for an Indigenous person living in Victoria…or, for…
The relatively new Human Rights Council has created new power blocs in international affairs. Australia will come under the spotlight in the four-yearly Universal Periodic Review, in early 2011, of how well we’re doing as a nation in terms of ensuring th…
With an appeal pending in the High Court from the SA Government because of the over-turning of part of its ‘bikie’ legislation, similar laws are largely on hold Australia-wide. In WA, motorcycle groups are getting active ahead of a likely mid-year in…
The Howard and Rudd governments’ response to the threat of terrorism in Australia has been extraordinarily excessive, under any proper risk analysis. It seems all governments like to ramp up fear, to keep the community docile. Here Chris Michaelsen highl…
It’s official! The UN says that the Rudd Government is acting in a racially discriminating manner and breaching international human rights obligations with its NT intervention. So says James Anaya, the Special Rapporteur, in his Advance report.NT inter…
Making sure ‘invisible’ are seenAs you enter the realm of the ‘aged’, you grow invisible, they say: younger people’s eyes look through, over, around, beyond you. The rights of the aged is one of the focal issues for CLA in 2010: here Valerie Lipman proposes a UN Human Rights convention…