In an opportunity with national significance, CLA will help a NSW Parliamentary Committee develop new performance measures for police and crime bodies so politicians and the public can assess how well they function. As the price of crime goes up, we need to know how cost-effective our very expensive police, security and similar agencies are, the NSW Parliament believes. The November issue of CLArion also concentrates on privacy, FOI and CCTV.
Privacy is becoming a core civil liberties battleground as e-media such as Facebook threaten a new type of vigilantism, based on amateur ‘sleuthing’, which can easily go wrong. Throughout Australia, there’s assaults on personal space, freedom, and the right to speak out, and up. Government and its agencies are continuing to act repressively, and one commentator even believes the secretive ASIO is actively making people ill.
Other items in this issue include:
- Government pushed to enact whistleblowing law
- Is media coverage compromising a fair trial?
- Will Australia sign up to mining principles?
- Freed from prison…but still tagged
- Man jailed for 17 years gets new inquiry
- High Court to consider free speech again
- Plight of mentally ill raised twice
- Malaysian court ruling frees the press a little
- Police price and sickie themselves out of a job
- Kids’ detention cruel, harmful to health