Joint statement on the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill 2014
15 October 2014
The Australian Government has an important duty to protect the community from terrorism. At times, laws can legitimately limit the rights of individuals for the purpose of countering this threat, provided the limitations are necessary and proportionate.
In fact, national security laws and the protection of human rights share complementary goals; both are concerned with protecting Australians from harm.
Liberty Victoria raises serious concerns about the human rights implications of Australia's new asylum seeker policy.
President Jane Dixon SC said today: "Liberty is very concerned about how this policy will play out in practical terms. Australia seems to be outsourcing its obligations to a developing country known for its fragile economy and infrastructure shortcomings.
“We run the risk of promoting an `out of sight, out of mind’ attitude towards vulnerable refugees,” she said.
A reluctance to acknowledge the existence of racial profiling and a misunderstanding of how racism can be part of police practice underscores the need for better education in the Victoria Police, Liberty Victoria said today.
This follows a call by the Law Institute of Victoria for police to be required to have written consent before stopping and searching people deemed to be suspicious.
Both Liberty’s statement and the lawyers’ comments were in submissions to an inquiry after complaints by men with an African background in the Flemington area.
Public confidence in the legal system is threatened by jamming people into jail while hiding a study of the State’s prison population, Liberty Victoria said today.
Liberty President Jane Dixon SC echoed the warning by the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service that the crisis in prisons presents a perfect storm. “It is dangerous to Victorian prisoners and dangerous to the community,” she said.
Approval of the Napthine government’s move to ensure the Auditor-General’s independence came today from Liberty Victoria.
Liberty President Jane Dixon SC said it was vital for the proper oversight of government to keep this office as independent as possible.
The State Services Authority had the power to investigate the Auditor-General. The authority is being replaced by a Public Sector Commission, which will be stripped of such a power.
“The newly announced Coalition’s proposal to never allow over thirty thousand stranded asylum seekers settle in Australia, plumbs new depths of cruelty. It is a policy that will cause severe psychological harm. It extinguishes all hope and re-traumatises people who have already been traumatised many times over – in the repression they suffered in their previous homelands, their perilous escapes, and their impoverished limbo status in Australia.”
The social and economic costs of hardline anti-crime policies are simply too great, the President of Liberty Victoria, George Georgiou SC, warned today.
He said all Victorians should be concerned that two former judges of the Supreme Court say that the trend to jail more offenders will only lead to many becoming more violent on release. “The abolition of suspended sentences and the introduction of mandatory sentencing for a number of offences means prisoner numbers will increase,” he said.
