Facing a future of thought control
Air travel is providing an inisght into how widespread citizen recording and pigeon-holing will become in the very near future, an academic suggests. He warns that thought control is not far behind.
Ingesting surveillance: digital tracking inside the body
From Canada comes a cautionary tale of how digital trackers – already approved in the USA – can be put inside the body of patients and prisoners in particular to keep them docile and permanently monitored ‘in the cloud’ in real time. Is this happening in Australia: CLA would like to know.
Did philosopher Prior nail it for NZ…and for Oz?
A modern philosopher, Dr Mike Grimshaw, dissects the nature of New Zeaanders and therefore why civil liberties might be under threat, and dissipating, in that coutnry. Does his analysis also hold true for Australians?
Hypocrisy award goes to anti-Territory MP
How would you described Australian Members of Parliament who want Pacific islanders to have more rights and greater decision-making powers than the Australians whom the MPs represent? Hypocrites would be the only world: meet the retiring Kevin Andrews MHR and Minister for the Pacific, Senator Zed Seselja…islander advocates but no lovers of equal democratic rights for all Aussies.
CLA VP calls for safeguarding personal images
Police Minister’s so-called ‘ring of steel’ is actually giant privacy-invading mechanism, with no public, police or political-legislative safeguards, CLA VP Rajan Venkataraman says. It’s typical of a repressive approach to governing in a state which has no human rights charter to provide a modest baseline against which to measure surveillance intrusion into citizens’ lives.
Restoring equal rights to Territorians
A man who was there are at the foundations of legal structures in Canberra, Allan N Hall AM, has explained clearly why citizens of the the NT – and of the ACT – should have equal rights to all citizens of Australian States in a submission to the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. The committee clearly states it is considering voting rights, and is not interested in rehashing the voluntary assisted dying debate The committee’s report is due on 6 October 2021.
Confidence in Australian democracy plummets
A federal parliament committee is hearing widespread views on the state of Australian democracy, including our inability to amend the Constitution and a reluctance to hold many referendums, in a series of ‘public’ meetings available to all citizens through streaming. Here is a precis of the comments in a submission by academic Dr Bede Harris, who has recently launched a major book on the subject.
Q. to CLA: How about we adopt an Australia Card?
It sounds so simple, just adopt an ID card that you must carry with you everywhere to ‘sign in’ during the Covid-19 pandemic. But how quickly would surveillance-creep go viral, and your movements be subjected to watching and recording every second of every day, all year, everywhere, by the police, spooks and governments? Massive safeguards are needed to protect our privacy and our private information, CLA says.
Are we losing our liberties?
Are Australians losing liberties under the pandemic? There’s a strict, legal answer…and then the practical reality of what’s occurring. But the real lesson is that only eternal vigilance – and a federal Human Rights Act – will protect our freedoms. ‘The struggle for civil liberties is a journey that’s never ending,’ former High Court judge, Michael Kirby, says.
Top cop confused on legality of police actions
Was Operation Ironside illegal under Australian law? There is doubt, created by the AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw, whether the much ballyhooed Operation Ironside was carried out according to the law of the land. The first duty of our police is to obey the law, even before enforcing it. We need open and honest answers rather than confuseed bluster and PR spin, CLA says.