A wave of new federal and state laws have recently been introduced under the guise of protecting against hate speech and vilification. The Human Rights Law Centre is advocating to strengthen protections while also calling for evidence-based prevention and education programs.
Read MoreThe laws, if passed, would have wide-ranging implications for the right to peaceful assembly and may lead to the criminalisation of conduct which does not impact on the rights of people to practice their religion and be protected from racial or religious hatred.
Read MoreHuman rights defenders, community groups, journalists, activists, and whistleblowers must be protected from being dragged through expensive and exhausting lawsuits by powerful corporations.
Read MoreThe right to protest, free speech and academic freedom are central tenets of a functioning democracy.
Read MoreStop the SLAPP shines a light on the rise of Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP) being used in Australia by the powerful and the wealthy.
Read MoreTasmania’s whistleblowers cannot safely go to the media or parliamentarians. The result is a silencing of public interest stories, while fraud, misconduct and corruption remain hidden.
Read MoreSocial media platforms should be a place where we can come together to connect. Instead, they are a place where powerful interests spread misinformation to devastating effect.
Recently, we have seen misinformation spread falsehoods and division in elections here and abroad. Misinformation is poisoning our democracy and causing real world harm to people and communities and weak laws and regulation are to blame.
Read MorePeople calling out racism have usually faced more repercussions than those spreading fear, hatred and division
Read MoreWhistleblowers are critical to addressing the climate and biodiversity crises.
Read MoreTransparency is essential for a healthy democracy. But from failing whistleblower protections to a broken freedom of information system and police raids on media companies, transparency is under threat in Australia.
Read MoreInstead of reining in social media giants, the government’s new law is letting them police themselves. We know what happens when we ask the fox to guard the henhouse.
Read MoreMisinformation is poisoning our democracy by distorting public debate, threatening peoples’ online safety, and causing real world harm to people and communities.
This is because Australia has weak laws that allow digital platforms to regulate themselves. Digital platforms profit from amplifying misinformation and hate speech. They will never fix the problem without government intervention.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government to combat misinformation which is poisoning Australia's democracy as part of a new report: Rights-First: Principles for Digital Platform Regulation.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre's Whistleblower Project has turned one. Find out about our first year of impact protecting and empowering whistleblowers.
Read MoreWhat don’t we know because potential whistleblowers are too scared to raise concerns? What scandals remain hidden?
Read MoreRegrettably, in August, the High Court of Australia declined to hear an appeal by tax office whistleblower Richard Boyle.
Boyle will now face trial - and potential jail time - after blowing the whistle on unethical debt recovery practices at the Australian Taxation Office.
Read MoreWith the rising influence of fossil fuel industries over Australian politics, the Human Rights Law Centre has produced the Climate and Environmental Whistleblowing Information Guide, a practical resource to support any person to raise concerns about climate and environmental wrongdoing in Australia.
Read MoreThere is one crucial resource this country hasn’t yet fully appreciated and nurtured in pursuit of a safer climate: the whistleblower.
Read MoreOur right to protest is under threat. That’s why we are launching our new report Protest in Peril.
Read MoreThe Protest in Peril report analyses and compiles every single bill across Australia over the last two decades which has impacted upon the right to protest, and has found the right to protest is being steadily eroded in Australia.
Read MoreSweeping, unnecessary and disproportionate secrecy laws are bad for democracy. Not only do they prevent the public having a proper understanding of what is done in their name, but they allow wrongdoing to go unchecked.
The South Australian Court of Appeal rejected an appeal brought by tax office whistleblower Richard Boyle. Richard had spoken up about unethical debt recovery practices at the tax office. He has since been vindicated by several independent reviews. The outcome lays bare how our weak laws are failing whistleblowers. There is no public interest in prosecuting people speaking out against injustice and wrongdoing.
Read MoreDavid McBride was given a sentence of five years and eight months, with a non-parole period of two years and three months for leaking documents to the ABC which exposed war crimes in Afghanistan.
Read MoreDoes it really make our country a better place to imprison a whistleblower whose actions led to public interest reporting on war crimes in Afghanistan?
The Human Rights Law Centre Whistleblower Project supported scientists, doctors, nurses and ecologists to speak out against a proposed petrochemical hub for processing gas planned for Darwin Harbour.
Read MoreTransparency in government requires more than laws and shiny new institutions. It needs real courage and leadership.
Governments must not give into their demands for profit at the expense of our planet, and our right to speak up. This is why we have released our Declaration of Our Right to Protest. The Declaration calls for governments across Australia to adhere to international standards and human rights law to protect protest rights.
Read MoreThe right to protest in Australia is under significant and sustained attacks by governments and increasingly, the fossil fuel industry. The Human Rights Law Centre is calling for governments across Australia to better protect protest rights, by releasing the “Declaration of Our Right to Protest”.
Read MoreIn Australia, as we’re seeing across the globe, disinformation is being used as a powerful weapon by far-right groups to gain public support for regressive movements that want to wind back human rights.
Read MoreThis new report by Reset Australia, summarises a policy roundtable about the need for effective legislative and regulatory interventions on misinformation and disinformation in the context of the proposed Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill (the Bill).
Read MoreDavid McBride sought to expose grave wrongdoing committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. In November 2023, David went on trial in the Supreme Court in Canberra for blowing the whistle.
Read MoreDisinformation is being used as a powerful weapon to gain public support for regressive movements that want to wind-back human rights. The Human Rights Law Centre is pushing for laws to prevent social media companies from amplifying lies and disinformation designed to distort important political debate.
Read MoreTwo years ago yesterday, the ACT Court of Appeal handed down a landmark judgment in defence of truth and transparency in our democracy. There's one problem: to this day it remains secret.
Read MoreFormer army lawyer David McBride will soon face trial accused of leaking classified defence information. What does this say about Australia?
Read MoreThe Project being launched today is a new step in encouraging and supporting these whistleblowers. It is a major initiative in relation to a matter of considerable public importance.
Read MoreWhistleblowers make the public service a better place. We avoid the next robodebt saga by decreasing the cost of courage and ensuring that those who speak up are protected, not punished.
Read MoreWhat would we not know were it but for brave whistleblowers speaking up? And what do we not know right now because the cost of courage in Australia is too high? These are the questions that keep me awake at night, and they are the reasons the Human Rights Law Centre is this week launching the Whistleblower Project, a new initiative to protect and empower Australian whistleblowers.
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