Your Rights - Civil Liberties Australia

Barr humbug! Fancy trying to tell us which way to go

16 April 2020 25 April 2020

The ’National Cabinet’ is going to the heads of Premiers and Chief Ministers: they are starting to think they can rule divinely, now that parliaments are dead and democracy is dying. Would you believe one CM, Andrew Barr in the ACT, is trying to dictate that you can only walk or cycle one way – clockwise – around Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra. What will he do next? Order the tide to go out, or the stars to rotate differently. Bring back our civil liberties, starting immediately

Crisis causes power to aggregate centrally

28 March 2020 29 March 2020

As the virus crisis bites deeper into daily life, more people are starting to question what freedoms and liberties we are giving up at the behest of an ever-shrinking ‘executive’ ruling group, comprising a hotch-potch of people from MPs to mining bosses and public servants with interesting track records. CLA member Carolyn van Langenberg airs some opinions alternate to the mainstream groupthink.

Crisis is no reason to abuse secret powers

19 March 2020 19 March 2020

While civil society is grating the government licence to use extraordinary powers during a medical emergency, that is no excuse to abuse people’s trust by bringing in draconian measures like over-the-top surveillance and elimination of the flimsy privacy rights we still retain, CLA says.

Why no outcry over public Corvid-19 measures by CLA?

16 March 2020 16 March 2020

We have been asked: Hi, why has there been no outcry from you regarding the loss of liberties, introduction of new laws and manipulation of old laws relating to freedom of association, participation, travel and (soon to occur) education?. Here is CLA’s reply about civil liberties, balance and ‘not harming other people’.

Borders disappear…along with your right to privacy

16 March 2020 16 March 2020

A new rights-eroding law would increase the reach of police and spooks into our lives at the expense of our withering rights, says author Paul Gregoire writing for Sydney Criminal Lawyers. The Frankenstein legislation would enable five-ways open slather access to all phone calls, emails, data and even metadata.

At last, Australia’s privacy watchdog takes positive action

13 March 2020 13 March 2020

Ausralia’s statutory privacy watchdog, the OAIC, is taking Facebook to the Federal Court over alleged breaches of the privacy of 311,000 Australians…who may be just the tip of the iceberg. The case alleges Facebook has broken Australian law by harvesting personal data without fully revealing what the company was doing, and not protecting personal data properly.