Submitted by Liberty Victoria on Mon, 24/08/2015 - 14:21
Liberty Victoria has welcomed the Victorian government’s decision to remove Special Religious Instruction (‘SRI’) from scheduled class time at government schools. The government has announced instead that SRI will only be available before or after school or at lunchtime.
Submitted by Liberty Victoria on Thu, 20/08/2015 - 00:39
Liberty Victoria today warned against moves to wind back access to the courts for environmental groups.
The attack on access follows a successful challenge by a Queensland conservation group in the Federal Court that stopped Adani's Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland.
Liberty believes that removing the right of judicial review undermines government accountability and threatens the rule of law.
Liberty Victoria supports a terminally ill person’s right to die with dignity. As early as 1998 Liberty Victoria produced a booklet titled The Final Choice – Considerations on Choosing to Die, and has in the past supported voluntary euthanasia Bills.
Submitted by Liberty Victoria on Mon, 03/08/2015 - 11:17
The decision by an Egyptian court to once again adjourn the re-trial of television’s “three brothers”, journalists Peter Greste, Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy, came as they were awarded Australia’s top free speech honour. The next hearing is scheduled for 29 August 2015.
Members of the human rights organisation, Liberty Victoria, overwhelmingly nominated the “three brothers”, journalists Peter Greste, Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy for Australia’s top free speech honour. The Voltaire award recognises an outstanding contribution to freedom of speech.
In October 2014 the Victorian Law Reform Commission (the Commission) was asked to examine and report on how the law can better prevent organised crime and criminal organisations from infiltrating occupations and industries.
Regulatory regimes include licensing, registration requirements and fit and proper person tests.
The Commission reviewed various lawful occupations and industries in Victoria and elsewhere:
Religious groups are allowed to provide dogmatic religious instruction to primary students in government schools. Is this acceptable in secular Australia? A sustained campaign against this practice from parents, educators and academics has long argued it is not. A new report from Liberty Victoria agrees, arguing that the ‘Special Religious Instruction’ program is a human rights law issue.
This report, prepared with Young Liberty for Law Reform, considers the Special Religious Instruction (SRI) program currently implemented in many Victorian government schools.
Submitted by Liberty Victoria on Fri, 24/07/2015 - 09:36
Civil liberties groups today warned that moves by the federal government to strip citizenship would not make Australians safer.
“To expel a person who has engaged in terrorism related offences and prevent them from re-entering Australia only places Australians and Australian interests in other places at greater risk,” they said. “Moreover, it merely heaps the burden created by such persons upon other countries which are often theatres of war and are ill equipped to deal with such persons.”
The councils for civil liberties across Australia (Liberty Victoria, New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, South Australia Council for Civil Liberties and the Australian Council for Civil Liberties) collaborated around this submission because the issue of citizen stripping is of great national significance.
