Instead of solving a problem that doesn’t exist, Malcolm Turnbull must address the one that does
Malcolm Turnbull’s proposed lifetime visa ban is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist and an attempt to distract us from one that does.
The proposal is absurd, the wedge politics cynical and the explanations insincere. Sadly, the fear and harm being caused is real.
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Is this the end of the age of human rights? Let's hope not
Late last year, a friend told me that we need to make sure we don't look back in the future on human rights as just a passing phase. It was a comment that kept coming back to me over the past 12 months with Brexit, the re-rise of Pauline Hanson, the hardening of Turnbull and now Trump.
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Guarding against law and order excess
Last year, Kumanjayi Langdon, a proud and respected 59-year-old Warlpiri man from a large family, died in police custody in Darwin.
His crime? Police suspected he was drinking in a local park. He wasn’t causing any disruption and was polite and cooperative at all times.
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Ms Dhu's death in custody: The shocking footage that Australia needs to see
Dragged from her cell. Handcuffed and paralysed. Hauled, dying, into the back of a police truck. This week Australia may be confronted, yet again, with images and footage of the justice system failing Aboriginal people, with devastating results.
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A modest pledge won't erase the stain of Manus and Nauru
Our Prime Minister, Immigration Minister and Foreign Minister have spent this week in New York attending high-profile global summits on refugees. They arrived insisting that the Australian government's policies were the "best in the world", but they'll leave having offered little more than self-congratulations.
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Surgical sterilisation shouldn't be the cost of correcting a transgender person's birth certificate
While the nation's eyes have been on federal parliament bickering over the marriage equality plebiscite this week, another critical LGBTI debate began in the Victorian Legislative Assembly.
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Enough is enough: bring Manus Island detainees to Australia
The PNG government has conceded that the Manus facility must close. But while tearing down the fences would be a significant step, the real issue is not the future of the facility itself but of the 854 men trapped inside it.
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Offshore detention was destined to fail and the collapse might be closer than you think
Australia’s offshore camps are a house of cards. They’re unsustainable and liable to collapse amid increasing corporate aversion to complicity in abuse, legal uncertainty and human despair.
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Northern Territory detention royal commission shows Malcolm Turnbull can lead on human rights
Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull's announcement of a royal commission into the abuse of children in Northern Territory jails gives an insight into his instincts on human rights.
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The youth justice system is a slippery slope of failure
Monday night's Four Corners episode also revealed that cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment is endemic in its principal youth detention facility.
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For everyone's sake, Ferrovial must withdraw from Manus Island and Nauru detention contract
Every day that the Manus Island and Nauru camps stay open, people suffer. Every day that Ferrovial operates those centres, it is exposed to risk, writes the HRLC's Rachel Ball.
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The Universal Periodic Review and human rights progress: A case study from Australia
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) has received mixed reviews about its effectiveness as a mechanism to achieve positive human rights change. However, the case study of Australia demonstrates the capacity of the UPR to open space for dialogue and facilitate positive, albeit modest, human rights progress and monitoring.
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We’ve been silent on injustice for too long
Governments around Australia are again playing politics with the lives and liberty of Indigenous people writes the HRLC’s Ruth Barson and Julian Cleary from Amnesty International Australia.
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Same-sex apology draws a line in the sand
We shouldn't underestimate the human toll of the 'homosexual conduct' laws. William Leonard from Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria and HRLC's Anna Brown explain how the Victorian Government's State Apology is also about publicly acknowledging and valuing the diversity of sexual expression.
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Find your way: Law Week
Law Week is a time to pause and reflect on how well the law is serving the community, writes Managing Director of Victoria Legal Aid, Bevan Warner.
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Manus: What Australia Needs to Do Now
The PNG Supreme Court's unanimous ruling highlights the harmfulness of Australia's treatment of asylum seekers in the Manus Island detention centre.
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Western Australians should not tolerate injustice
It’s been twenty-five years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, yet WA’s justice system remains utterly out of balance – it is destroying families and communities, writes the HRLC’s Ruth Barson.
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Whither universal suffrage? The case for lowering the voting age in Australia
The article below was written for the special 2016 Children Rights Edition of the HRLC Monthly Bulletin, Rights Agenda, developed in collaboration with the National Children’s and Youth Law Centre, King & Wood Mallesons and the Human Rights Law Centre.
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Age of consent and the criminal law
This article was written for the special 2016 Children Rights Edition of the HRLC Monthly Bulletin, Rights Agenda, developed in collaboration with the National Children’s and Youth Law Centre, King & Wood Mallesons and the Human Rights Law Centre.
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NSW anti-protest laws are part of a corrosive national trend
NSW's new anti-protest laws are the latest example of governments in Australia steadily chipping away at our democracy's foundations, writes the HRLC's Hugh de Kretser.
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