One of Australia’s most popular actors and a prominent activist are among those awarded this year’s major free speech awards, announced today.

A further award went to a journalist asylum seeker who has been imprisoned without trial offshore by the Australian Government for over four years.

Actor Magda Szubanski has topped off an astonishing year by being honoured for her work for marriage equality. She is the recipient of the nation’s top free speech honour, the Voltaire Award.

New mandatory sentencing laws will not make our communities safer, the human rights group Liberty Victoria warned today. The comments were made in response to Wednesday’s announcement that the Andrews government will expand the number of offences for which judges and magistrates will be banned from using Community Correction Orders (CCOs).