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.
Submitted by Liberty Victoria on Wed, 08/07/2015 - 00:04
The Federal Government is urged to redouble its efforts to help an Australian journalist and his colleague facing charges of criminal defamation and computer crimes in Thailand.
“Just as in the case of Peter Greste in Egypt we have a case of a harsh crackdown on the media,” said the president of Liberty Victoria, George Georgiou SC. “In Egypt Greste was reporting on unrest inside the country. In Thailand the story has been on human rights abuses against ethnic Rohingya migrants.”
The Federal Government is falling into a trap by harshly removing people's rights in the guise of fighting terrorism, Liberty Victoria said today.
"Giving a Minister the power to strip those with dual citizenship of their Australian citizenship if they are suspected of terrorism, with a meagre chance of review plays right into the hands of extremists," said Liberty President George Georgiou SC. "The political use of this power will inflame and incense those Australians who already feel demonised and demeaned."
