Latest CLArion
January 2019: Bright spots provide hope as new year brings fresh battles over aged care and bills of rights
Change is in the air this new year: a new governor-general – will he be the last? A federal election – will new MPs realise Australians want much more listening and far less shouting by their national representatives? Will the completed Banking Royal Commission and the beginning Aged Care RC fulfil our hopes for improved personal treatment by big business of average Aussies? And can we improve the legal and penal system to deliver quality and timely ‘justice’ at reduced cost with far less angst all round?- 10 years wrongly jailed: gathering outside parliament
- High Court judge urges more Crown appeals against sentences
- Australians losing faith in democracy
- ‘Five Eyes’ become arbiters of national policy, manipulators of commerce
- Suppressed! Your right to know
- Protest rights need better protection
- CCC calls for inquiry into ‘justice’ system
- Police want to predict criminal intentions
- Sentenced aged 16, ineligible for parole until aged 67
Recent CLArions
- December 2018: Politicians concentrate on fear-raising activities as police and security agencies escape close scrutiny and control This time around we head into the annual news silly season from Christmas through January with a federal election all but called, and parliament on tilt. There’s a real danger that ...
- November 2018: Aged Care RC must consider liberties/rights of elderly; Dutton makes surreptitious move towards national ID scheme Aged care is the next national disgrace to get its time in the Royal Commission witness box, over the next 18 months: CLA is calling for members to tell us what ...
- October 2018: MPs move to safeguard genes data from insurance companies; ABC management fail, but journos spark another Royal Commission
There’s a welcome push in federal parliament to rein in insurance companies through a moratorium on citizens’ having to disclose the results of genes testing. The move would safeguard rights under insurance and superannuation policies, which affect nearly every Australian. ...
- September 2018: Major intelligence review likely to beef up security, surveillance
Emerging from a political schemozzle, real government business continues with a major review of the ‘National Intelligence Community’ scheduled for early 2019. Your input is sought for a November 2018 CLA submission. The government claims the review is NOT about ...
- August 2018: Future of rights and liberties under scrutiny
Debates about liberties and rights are back on the public agenda as the Australian Human Rights Commission launches a new study into how emerging IT is affecting us. The prospects are improving that Queensland will become the third jurisdiction (after ...
- July 2018: Nauru has become Australia’s devil’s island
Nauru is the never-ending nightmare for children and their parents who sought asylum in Australia in the hope of a better life. Now they are imprisoned by an ocean, with no prospect of leaving unless they take a government bribe ...
- June 2018: Spook special: how wrong choices skew political monitoring
The Big End of town receives different justice from mainstream punters. Similarly, Australia’s spooks enjoy the lightest of parliamentary supervision because a key committee is dominated by MPs whose actions, and a recent speech, clearly demonstrate they are part of ...
- May 2018: New campaign for parliament to vote when Australian forces get involved in conflicts
CLA is planning to launch a new campaign to convince the Australian Parliament to pass legislation so that a Prime Minister has to seek parliamentary approval on sending Australians troops into war or a warlike situation.
The campaign will have ... - CLArion April 2018: Religious freedom inquiry delayed, new CLA initiatives
Parliament committees inquiring into religious freedom in Australia as well as electoral funding and mandated disclosure by NGOs have been inundated with submissions, forcing them to report late. This issue also shows off CLA’s new T-shirt, reminds members about our ...
- March 2018 newsletter: FOI, privacy in turmoil as boss resigns out of the blue
The boss of privacy, data breach monitoring and FOI has resigned out of the blue, just as the government introduces a new regime supposedly to curtail leaking by the corporate sector of private, personal data. At the same time, the ...
- Feb 2018 newsletter: Aged care inquiry is priority; danger lurks in police state laws
A federal parliament committee’s inquiry peeling back secrecy around aged care practices will dominate early 2018. There’s also grave danger in the ‘creeping Stalinism’ of proposed anti-whistleblower laws. 31 Jan 2018