refugees

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.

Australia’s name for decency and a fair go has been permanently stained by the latest sickening violence on Manus Island, Liberty Victoria said today.

Reports of attacks on refugees with metal poles and other weapons to force them to a new unfinished prison after three weeks of resistance shames the nation, said Liberty president Jessie Taylor.

“Our leaders seem deaf to the appeals by Australians of the Year, religious leaders and people going into the street,” she said.

Young Liberty for Law Reform, a program of one of Australia’s leading civil liberties organisations, Liberty Victoria, released a report today shining a light on a dark corner of our democracy. The report recommends fundamental and urgent changes to the laws that apply to whistleblowers in our immigration system, and calls on the Commonwealth Government to end a culture of secrecy.