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 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 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 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.
Read MoreProtection for journalists’ sources is a vital component of press freedom. Together, the media and their sources bring transparency and accountability. Without whistleblowing, public interest journalism is often not possible; and wrongdoing remains hidden. Which is why it is absolutely crucial for press freedom in Australia that whistleblowers are protected, not punished.
Read MoreAustralians should not be punished for speaking the truth. When courageous whistleblowers speak up about human rights violations, government misfeasance or corporate misdeeds, we can demand action.
Read MoreWhistleblowers are vital actors in our democracy, upholding our right to know. Without them – and the public interest journalism they make possible – corruption and human rights abuses go unaddressed. In recent weeks, Senator David Pocock and members of parliament Zoe Daniel and Andrew Wilkie have all given voice to whistleblowers.
Read MoreEvery day these other prosecutions remain alive, democracy in Australia suffers. The cases send a chilling message to prospective whistleblowers: don’t speak out or you will pay the price.
Read MoreEvery day these other prosecutions remain alive, democracy in Australia suffers. The cases send a chilling message to prospective whistleblowers: don’t speak out or you will pay the price.
Read MoreIt was hard to watch the bureaucratic machine perpetrating injustice – Mark Dreyfus must now intervene in the other two cases
Read MoreOn the first day of March this year, Scott Morrison declared his commitment to democratic principles. ‘My government will never be backward when it comes to standing up for Australia’s national interests and standing up for liberal democracy in today’s world,’ the prime minister told reporters.
Read MoreThe only people brought before the courts over illegal spying and war crimes are the people who helped expose them.
Read MoreIn early October, the ACT Court of Appeal refused to allow the trial of whistleblower Bernard Collaery to go ahead in secret, behind closed courtroom doors. A one-page summary said secret trials erode public confidence in the court and open the door to political prosecutions.
Read MoreSecret evidence, secret hearings and secret judgements. Each step in the prosecution of Bernard Collaery comes with another layer of opacity. If it were not so serious, the accumulation of secrecy in this case would be comedic.
Read MoreWe live in difficult times. On top of the climate crisis, a once-in-a-century pandemic and rampant global inequality, democratic norms continue to be eroded at home and abroad.
Read MoreThe sorry saga of the prosecution of Bernard Collaery, an eminent Canberra lawyer, has seen a number of unhappy chapters. His prosecution, for Collaery’s alleged role in exposing Australia’s espionage against friendly neighbours Timor-Leste, is profoundly unjust.
Read MoreSitting in the magistrates court in Canberra this week, I felt like I was watching a scene from Franz Kafka’s The Trial – the famous novel in which a man is arrested and prosecuted by a mysterious authority for an unknown crime.
Read MoreSitting in the magistrates court in Canberra this week, I felt like I was watching a scene from Franz Kafka’s The Trial – the famous novel in which a man is arrested and prosecuted by a mysterious authority for an unknown crime.
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