Media Releases

The Human Rights Law Centre has welcomed recommendations by an independent review into the law that enabled the prosecutions of Witness J, Witness K and Bernard Collaery to be shrouded in secrecy, and called on the Attorney-General to urgently implement the review's findings.

Civil society groups have raised concerns about the democratic impact of the prosecution of David McBride, after the Afghan Files whistleblower pleaded guilty to three charges. 

The Human Rights Law Centre have questioned the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) over its decision not to deploy mobile polling booths in hospitals and for insufficient allocation of resources to mobile polling teams on Aboriginal homelands.

The Human Rights Law Centre today condemned the NSW Police Minister and NSW Police for refusing to allow a planned protest to go ahead by members of the Palestinian community and their supporters. It further condemned the NSW Premier, Chris Minns, for his alarming comments indicating Palestinians would not be permitted to take to the streets again in the future. 

The Australian parliament must reform public and private sector whistleblowing law and establish a whistleblower protection authority to address the urgent need for accessible, legal support and protections for whistleblowers, the Human Rights Law Centre said on release of a new report. 

By exposing human rights violations, government wrongdoing and corporate misdeeds, whistleblowers make Australia a stronger democracy. But right now, whistleblowers in Australia face retaliation within their own workplaces. They continue to be sued by their employers for speaking out; some are being criminally prosecuted for telling the truth. 

The Human Rights Law Centre today criticised the use of restraining orders by Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill, which silence climate activists.  

From August 22 to 25, 2023, human rights organizations from different countries carried out an independent international mission in the Province of Jujuy in response to the serious news of possible human rights violations within the framework of the recent provincial constitutional reform process.

The Human Rights Law Centre have welcomed the draft Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 (Cth) as a positive step toward regulating social media platforms, which profit from the spread of dangerous disinformation. 

The Malinauskas Government’s anti-protest laws have passed the South Australian Legislative Council. The laws, which were rushed through Parliament without any public consultation, will undermine the ability of everyone in South Australia to exercise their right to peacefully protest. 

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) will release data on 1 February revealing how much political parties and third parties spent in the 2022 Federal election, and the donations used to fund those campaigns.  

The Human Rights Law Centre, the Australian Democracy Network and the Australia Institute today welcomes the federal Greens’ announcement to protect the right to protest. 

The Australian parliament must reform public and private sector whistleblowing law and establish a whistleblower protection authority, according to a report published on Wednesday by Griffith University, the Human Rights Law Centre and Transparency International Australia.

The Human Rights Law Centre will today appear before the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Standards (Committee), to give evidence for reforms that would ensure that politicians and all people working in, or visiting, the Commonwealth Parliament fall under a code of conduct. The code should cover not just gender-based bullying, harassment and assault, but other forms of discrimination, including racism, ableism and transphobia.

The Human Rights Law Centre and Australian Centre for International Justice are calling for an end to the unjust prosecution of war crimes whistleblower David McBride, as his whistleblowing defence hearing begins in Canberra on Thursday.

The Human Rights Law Centre will today appear before the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (Committee), to advocate for reforms that will make elections fairer and our democracy stronger.

The Human Rights Law Centre has welcomed the release of a landmark report on facial recognition technology (FRT) and called on the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus KC, to urgently regulate the technology to prevent human rights harms.

The Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Morrison Government to urgently fix the regulations that stand in the way of tens of thousands of Australians with Covid-19 exercising their fundamental democratic right to vote.

An alliance of Australia’s most well-established and respected charities today called on all parties to support issues-based charity advocacy in the lead up to elections.

The Tasmanian Government’s proposals to make political donations and election spending more transparent are a step in the right direction, but the new laws do not go far enough. The legislation still leaves Tasmania with the weakest regulation of third-party campaigners, such as industry lobby groups, of any state or territory in Australia.

Human rights, Aboriginal, social justice and environment organisations have welcomed the Tasmanian Legislative Council’s commitment to civil liberties with its voting down yesterday of the Workplaces (Protection from Protesters) Amendment Bill 2019.

The Palaszczuk Government is today expected to pass laws to limit political donations and spending in Queensland elections, with new amendments in place to ensure charities will still be able to advocate on issues like family violence, homelessness and protecting the environment.

Fourteen members of the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations (INCLO) including the Human Rights Law Centre express deep concern over the escalation in police responses to protests in the USA over the past week.

Limits on the amount of money political parties, candidates and campaigners can spend on elections are needed to restore trust in democracy and achieve greater political equality, a Parliamentary Committee will hear today.

Laws that require telecommunication companies to keep records of every single Australian’s phone calls, text messages and movements for at least two years must be amended to prevent the indiscriminate invasion of people’s privacy, a Parliamentary Committee heard today.

“Queensland has a historic opportunity to have the best laws in the country for regulating the influence of money in politics. But first, the proposed laws need significant amendment to ensure not only that charities can continue to speak up, but that big corporate spending is reined in,” said Alice Drury.

The Australian Electoral Commission today released data revealing how much each political party and campaigners spent in the 2019 Federal election, and the donations used to fund those campaigns. 

The Human Rights Law Centre today released expert advice by a team of Queensland barristers led by Stephen Keim SC that warns that the Palaszczuk Government’s proposed changes to Queensland electoral laws could face a High Court challenge.

The Palaszczuk Government’s bill to limit political donations and election spending will have the unintended consequence of silencing charities and community groups unless it is amended, legal experts told a parliamentary committee today. 

Queensland’s new anti-protest laws have come under fire from United Nations experts who warn that the laws unduly restrict freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of speech.

The Palaszczuk Government today introduced the Electoral and Other Legislation (Accountability, Integrity and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2019 that would limit political donations and spending in Queensland elections.

Proposed laws that would require real-time disclosure of political donations would strengthen democracy, but amendments are needed to ensure they operate fairly, the Human Rights Law Centre said today.

The Palaszczuk Government’s announcement today that it will limit political donations and spending in Queensland elections has the potential to be a game changing reform to strengthen Queensland democracy.

The Morrison Government’s plans to implement a facial recognition scheme that endangered rights to privacy have been thwarted after a parliamentary review.

A proposed law that criminalises peaceful protest tactics would infringe Queenslanders’ right to freedom of expression, association and assembly, human rights lawyers told a parliamentary committee in Queensland.

NSW parliament should not pass a proposed law that would unfairly and unreasonably impact on peoples’ freedom to peacefully protest.

The Morrison Government’s plan to impose drastic new regulations on unions is unnecessary, unreasonable and will undermine workers’ ability to stand together, the Human Rights Law Centre told a parliamentary committee today.

Leading civil society groups say caps on election spending are vital to restoring democracy and achieving greater political equality.

The Morrison Government’s plans for a facial recognition identification and surveillance scheme are dangerously overbroad, lack safeguards and could dramatically alter the freedom of ordinary people going about their daily lives.

The Morrison Government’s plan to impose drastic new regulations on unions is unnecessary, unreasonable and will undermine workers’ ability to stand together, the Human Rights Law Centre, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and NSW CLC told a parliamentary committee.

Amidst reports last week of the extraordinarily high rate at which the Australian Federal Police accessed the communications history of journalists, the Human Right Law Centre, Digital Rights Watch and Access Now have called on the Morrison Government to urgently reform metadata laws.

The Australian Government should repeal laws that strip Australian dual nationals of their citizenship and place them at an unacceptable risk of the statelessness, family separation and indefinite detention, the Human Rights Law Centre said in a submission to a Parliamentary committee.

To strengthen democracy and trust in politics, the NSW public must know who is influencing political decisions, the Human Rights Law Centre stated in a submission to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.

The Australian Council of Social Service, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Human Rights Law Centre today welcomed Labor’s election commitments that would protect and encourage public advocacy in the community and charity sectors.

Lawyers for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange confirmed overnight that they have received a warrant and a provisional extradition request from the United States. The US indictment charges Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for his role assisting whistleblower Chelsea Manning to leak US government information including evidence of civilian deaths and potential war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Government’s proposed new laws to enhance the Home Affairs Minister’s powers to strip citizenship from dual nationals would unnecessarily place Australians and their children at risk of statelessness and harm, the Human Rights Law Centre has warned a parliamentary committee this week.

The Human Rights Law Centre welcomes the passing of the electoral funding bill, which, after consultation with charities and not-for-profit organisations, is vastly different from the initial flawed proposal that would have stifled vital public advocacy by charities.

The Human Rights Law Centre welcomes the electoral funding bill that is to come before the Senate today, which is vastly different from the initial proposal that would have stifled vital public advocacy by charities.

"With this prosecution, the Government is trying to send a message to all public servants that if they dare to speak up about corruption or wrongdoing, the government will come down on them like a tonne of bricks. For a healthy democracy, we want people speaking up when they see something wrong," said Hugh de Kretser.

The Human Rights Law Centre welcomed changes recommended by a Parliamentary Committee into proposed national electoral laws, which are a further step towards rolling back proposed legislation that would have stifled vital public advocacy by charities.

The Human Rights Law Centre welcomed new changes to proposed electoral laws that had originally threatened to shut charities out of public policy debates, yet called for further improvements in a submission to a Parliamentary inquiry.

The Human Rights Law Centre welcomed new changes to proposed electoral laws that threatened to shut charities out of public debates about laws and policies.

New laws proposed by the Department of Home Affairs would create a massive database of photos of millions of ordinary Australians, including children, from passports, state and territory drivers’ licences and more.

Young people, who are most likely to feel the long-term effects of today’s political decisions, should be allowed to vote from the age of 16, the Human Right Law Centre said today in a submission to the Australian Parliament’s electoral committee.

Attorney-General Christian Porter has approved the criminal prosecution of a former Australian spy and his lawyer for their role revealing that the Australian Government had bugged the East Timorese cabinet room during sensitive negotiations about oil and gas revenue.

Charities and unions will largely be exempt from the foreign agent register if recommendations from a parliamentary committee’s inquiry into foreign influence are acted on.

Australia has a new espionage and secrecy regime, after the Parliament voted to pass the Turnbull Government’s proposals on Thursday evening. Over the last six months, civil society and lawyers’ groups, including the Human Rights Law Centre, raised serious concerns over impacts on freedom of expression.

The growing threat to press freedom posed by laws that fail to properly protect journalists and their sources has been highlighted by a new report by the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance.

The Human Rights Law Centre welcomed a Parliamentary Committee report which recognises major problems in the Turnbull Government’s foreign donations bill as it applies to third parties (individuals and organisations that do not stand for office).

Proposed amendments to the Turnbull Government’s secrecy laws are a step in the right direction but don’t go far enough, the Human Rights Law Centre told a parliamentary committee this morning.

Civil Voices, an initiative by Pro Bono Australia in partnership with the Human Rights Law Centre, has found Australian not-for-profit organisations are treading carefully in their advocacy work. This trend threatens to silence a sector that has much to contribute to Australian public debate and policy making.

Charities in Australia will be silenced from speaking publicly on issues in an election, under law reforms announced by the Australian Government. The Prime Minister, the Attorney-General and the Special Minister of State today outlined plans to ban international donations to charities that engage publicly in election issues.

Media Alert: At 10:15am Wednesday 18 October the High Court of Australia will hand down its decision in a landmark case which argued that Tasmania’s excessive anti-protest laws violate the implied freedom of political communication in the Australian Constitution.

The Australian Government must ensure transparency of its intelligence sharing with other countries to safeguard Australian citizen’s private information, a coalition of privacy and human rights organisations said with the launch of a new campaign.

“One of the things that makes our democracy great is having an informed public debate with a range of voices. Charities working for public benefit are and should be a key voice in these debates. The Government should be safeguarding their free speech, not stifling it,” said Emily Howie.

“Although Australia has, in many ways, a strong democracy, secrecy has noticeably increased across government. Australia’s commitment to the Open Government Forum is a step towards addressing some of the transparency issues that hold us back,” said Emily Howie.

Australian governments must act now to safeguard and encourage vibrant debate on matters of public interest, 15 non-government organisations have said in a new Human Rights Law Centre report to be launched by Gillian Triggs at the Progress conference in Melbourne.

On Tuesday the High Court of Australia will hear a landmark case seeking to strike down Tasmania’s excessive anti-protest laws that unreasonably limit people’s freedom to stand together and speak out on matters that they care about.

The New South Wales government’s anti-protest laws will unreasonably restrict and disproportionately punish people for standing together and speaking out on issues that they care about, said the Human Rights Law Centre.

Whistleblowers who reveal human rights abuses face the risk of prosecution and jail and require much greater legal protection, said the Human Rights Law Centre in a submission to the review of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (Cth). The Act is currently being reviewed by former Integrity Commissioner Philip Moss for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Australia’s political parties must stop eroding many of the vital foundations of Australia’s democracy, the Human Rights Law Centre has said in a new report. Civil society leaders joined the launch at Australian Parliament House to highlight the critical role that civil society plays in a healthy and robust democracy.