Submitted by Liberty Victoria on Wed, 03/11/2021 - 09:39
Liberty Victoria has published a detailed comment in response to the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021, available on its website.
Liberty Victoria welcomes the introduction of pandemic specific legislation with much improved accountability and transparency provisions, which do not exist for the current state of emergency powers.
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.
Submitted by Liberty Victoria on Wed, 22/09/2021 - 09:00
Liberty Victoria’s position on COVID-19 vaccines generally
COVID-19 has seen unprecedented restrictions on the human rights of Victorians. Where limitations on human rights are a proportionate response to risks to public health, Liberty Victoria has supported those measures. In circumstances where we consider restrictions are not proportionate, we have opposed them.
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.
