Keep up to date with ALRC news and media.
For media queries, please contact comms@alrc.gov.au.
03.02.2009
ALRC expresses deep gratitude to Justice Michael Kirby for service to law reform
Marking the resignation of Justice Michael Kirby, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) President, Professor David Weisbrot, today expressed his admiration and gratitude to the former High Court Judge for his outstanding dedication to law reform in Australia. Professor Weisbrot said Justice Kirby has definitive views on law reform and in Kirby’s own words said …
Read more21.01.2009
ALRC to consider flexibility, formality and cost of Royal Commissions
The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) welcomed the announcement today by the Commonwealth Attorney-General, the Hon Robert McClelland MP, of new Terms of Reference for the ALRC to review the Royal Commissions Act 1902 (Cth) and related issues. The Terms of Reference ask the ALRC to focus on a number of matters, including: whether there …
Read more01.01.2009
ALRC in the media – 2009
The ALRC monitors the media for references to the Commission and its inquiries. This list for 2009 is not comprehensive.
Read more23.12.2008
Government to implement ALRC’s Sedition Report
Australian Law Reform Commission President, Professor David Weisbrot, welcomed the Government’s positive response to the ALRC’s 2006 report Fighting Words: A Review of Sedition Laws in Australia (ALRC Report 104), announced today by the Commonwealth Attorney-General, the Hon Robert McClelland MP. The ALRC made 27 recommendations for reform of the law in this area, and …
Read more09.12.2008
Do we need secrecy laws in an open society?
The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) today released a community consultation paper for its current inquiry into Commonwealth Secrecy laws.—Review of Secrecy Laws (Issues Paper 34)—which seeks ideas and feedback about how we balance the need to maintain the secrecy and confidentiality of some government documents with a commitment to increased openness and transparency. ALRC …
Read more01.10.2008
ALRC revisits the legal rights of children and young people in Australia
It is now a little over ten years since the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (now the Australian Human Rights Commission) released the landmark 1997 report Seen and Heard: Priority for Children in the Legal Process (ALRC Report 84). Seen and Heard represented the culmination of a …
Read more26.08.2008
Delenda Est Carthago!’ Sir Robert Richard Torrens and his attack on the evils of conveyancing and dependent land titles: a reflection on the sesquicentenary of the introduction of his great law reforming initiative
By Professor Rosalind F Croucher [1], ALRC Commissioner, presented as the Alex Castles Memorial Legal History Lecture for Flinders University Law School, Adelaide, 26 August 2008.‘Carthage must be destroyed!’ exclaimed Robert Richard Torrens in concluding his First Reading Speech in introducing his Bill to amend the law of real property in South Australia. Who or what was the Carthage that …
Read more11.08.2008
Media Briefing – Simplifying and harmonising privacy law and practice
11 August 2008, Privacy Inquiry A consolidated set of privacy principles The Privacy Act provides different sets of Privacy Principles for the handling of personal information by government agencies and by private sector organisations. Contractors to the Australian Government, government business enterprises, and those involved in public-private partnerships may be bound to comply with both …
Read more11.08.2008
Australia must rewrite privacy laws for the Information Age
The Australian Law Reform Commission’s landmark report For Your Information: Australian Privacy Law and Practice (ALRC 108), was launched today in Sydney by the Cabinet Secretary, the Hon Senator John Faulkner, and the Attorney-General, the Hon Robert McClelland MP.The three-volume, 2700 page report is the culmination of a massive research and consultation exercise conducted over …
Read more11.08.2008
Media Briefing – Protecting Health Information in the Digital Age
11 August 2008 Electronic health records In recent years, there have been increasing pressures, particularly from government, to move from paper to electronic health records. The ALRC’s Privacy Inquiry coincided with a number of major initiatives to develop electronic medical records—including the proposed national Shared Electronic Health Records system, in which a summary of personal …
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