Submitted by Liberty Victoria on Thu, 12/04/2018 - 23:20
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).
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.
Submitted by Liberty Victoria on Mon, 19/03/2018 - 09:26
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.
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.
Submitted by Liberty Victoria on Tue, 06/03/2018 - 12:06
New laws aimed at improving child safety need better provisions, the human rights group Liberty Victoria warned today.
The laws set up a regime to allow a range of professionals to share information about children to promote their safety. They include child protection workers, teachers and health professionals.
“Liberty Victoria’s view is that the proposed regime needs to be amended to ensure that the range of information that can be stored is more clearly defined,” said Liberty president Jessie Taylor.
As previously stated in our submission to the Bail Review and commentary in respect of the Bail Amendment (Stage One) Bill 2017, Liberty Victoria is opposed to the State Government’s proposal to reverse the presumption of bail in a wide number of offences.
Freedom of religion is properly understood to mean the freedom for an individual to have, or not have, a religious belief, to join a religion and take part in its rites and rituals, or change religion, or leave a religion, and not to be discriminated against because of their having or not having a religion; and also the right of religions - taken to mean (more or less) organized groups of persons adhering to a common belief system—to coexist in society on a basis of equality with each other and with individuals or groups of no religion.
