Liberty Victoria strongly opposes the abolition of de novo appeals. These significant reforms have been introduced without evidence-based support. The last investigation in 2006 by the Law Reform Committee of the Parliament of Victoria recommended that de novo appeals should be retained. Since then, there has been no further research by Parliament or the Victorian Law Reform Commission into the de novo appeals system.

Liberty Victoria fully supports constitutional recognition of Australia's First Peoples, in the form set out in the Uluru Statement from the Heart: a constitutionally enshrined, First Nations Voice to the Parliament, and a Makarrata Commission, which will supervise a process of agreement-making and truth-telling. This model has been developed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples - the very peoples who are to be recognised in our founding document.

This Bill proposes to expand the detention and supervision order regime under the Serious Sex Offenders (Detention and Supervision) Act 2009 (Vic) to non-sexual violence offences. Under the scheme, offenders can be detained or subject to onerous supervision orders at the conclusion of their sentence. Liberty Victoria opposes the expansion of the scheme. Terms of imprisonment are  imposed by an independent judicial officer having regard to all sentencing considerations, including the risk of reoffending and the need for community protection.

Joint Councils of Civil Liberties submission on the Identity-matching Services Bill 2018 and the Australian Passports Amendment (Identity-matching Services) Bill 2018 which will authorise the Department of Home Affairs to collect, use and disclose identification information in order to operate the systems that will support a set of new biometric face-matching services. 

The portal that has been created does meet many privacy standards. The entry point stores minimal information – once the identity (ID) has been established only a token certifying that level of ID is kept on the website. The department or instrumentality being accessed is told that the ID is correct and doesn't require re proof for later access, nor do they store ID information. Only those departments or instrumentalities that the consumer wishes to access are linked to their account.

In principle Liberty supports the Children Legislation Amendment (Information Sharing) Bill 2017. However, Liberty Victoria’s view is that the proposed regime goes too far and needs to be amended to ensure that the range of information that can be stored is clearly defined, that children have the opportunity to give consent wherever possible, and that there are clear rules about the types of people that are able to access the information.