Liberty Victoria strongly opposes the Bill and calls for an inquiry into the character
visa cancellation and refusal framework.
Our principal concerns with the Bill can be summarised as follows:
(1) No compelling case has been put forward by the Government to justify the
amendments. They do not achieve their intended purpose;
(2) The amendments set an arbitrary and inconsistent standard of ‘character’;
(3) The amendments, far from creating an objective standard, create
considerable uncertainty;

This documents comments on the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021 and includes consideration of aspects of the Bill that are positive, as well as areas where the Bill can be improved

While the objectives  of the Bill in seeking to increase engagement in the community and to enhance community safety are laudable, the manner in which they are sought to be achieved is inapt and the proposals go well beyond what is required to meet those objectives.

Complainants and victims of crime are entitled to be part of a society that respects and protects their human rights. As we have previously submitted, Liberty Victoria strongly supports the view that complainants and victims of crime should be treated with courtesy, respect and dignity throughout the criminal justice process. We support the governing principles set out in the Victims’ Charter Act 2006 (Vic) in relation to the treatment of persons adversely affected by crime.

At the outset broadly and generally speaking, the Bill introduces powers for State-authorised hacking (also known as: lawful hacking, government hacking, computer network operations, network exploitative techniques). It is our position that Australia does not have an adequate federal human rights framework. Therefore, should the Bill come into force, Australians do not have sufficient safeguards of their fundamental rights to protect them from abuse of power by authorities.

Liberty Victoria is concerned that businesses sourcing labour from the on-demand workforce may be doing so in order to obfuscate the reality of their relationships with workers, and to exploit the uncertainty the current common law test creates

Liberty Victoria is concerned that the Australian Government is failing to uphold its international and domestic human rights obligations in relation to the on-demand workforce. Many protections enshrined in the FW Act do not extend to on-demand workers who are not characterised as employees under the common law test.