The Gillard Government pretends its newly-released National Human Rights Action Plan is a real commitment to rights and civil liberties in Australia. But what CLA describes as a Confected Rights Action Plan is all spin on top of hype. If the government, and/or the opposition, really believes that Australians are entitled to human rights protection, they must bring in a Bill of Rights. Why can’t Australians have the same freedom and liberty protections that New Zealand, British, American and Canadian citizens have?
The government promotes $1m privacy fines in the future, but its Privacy Commissioner has a track record of hardly ever finding breaches proven…plus he acts as consultant to the departments who are among the biggest offenders, like new see-through airport scanners which got his big tick. Meanwhile, reports show that government agencies pry into – breach the privacy of – the personal data of 5800 phone and internet account holders EACH WEEK. Where’s the respect for privacy in that?
Other items in this issue include:
- Go where the grass is greener…join the war effort
- Judge plays Solomon: what’s in name calling?
- NT Speaker prepared to sponsor euthanasia bill
- Ethics is a hidden subject in school options
- Judges slammed: system is ‘national legal joke’
- NSWCCL turns 50 in 2013
- NZ internet filter encourages more censorship
- Drugs: UK Royal Commission? Mexico emphasises rights
- Countries defence internet freedom (but not Australia)
- ‘War on Terror’ officially ends
- Central databases wrongly labels 12,000 as criminals
- Criminals face lifetime monitoring