News and Media

Keep up to date with ALRC news and media.

For media queries, please contact comms@alrc.gov.au.

12.09.2007

ALRC proposes a more comprehensive credit reporting regime

The Australian Law Reform Commission has proposed the introduction of a more comprehensive credit reporting regime, in a Discussion Paper released today as part of its major review of Australian privacy law and practice.ALRC President, Professor David Weisbrot, said that the ALRC’s review was the first Australian inquiry to recommend such a change, following extensive

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17.07.2007

Opening of AAL Symposium – Remarks

Prof David Weisbrot AM, President Australian Law Reform Commission, 17 July 2007, Government House, BrisbaneYour Excellency, Chief Justices, Attorneys-General, Fellows and most distinguished guestsAt long last. It is with great pleasure — and some considerable relief — that I am here to help launch, after several years of hard work, planning and preparation, Australia’s newest learned

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17.07.2007

Opening of AAL Symposium – Opening remarks

Prof David Weisbrot AM, President Australian Law Reform Commission, 17 July 2007, Government House, BrisbaneThe basic theme of our Symposium today is: What do we need to do to maintain professional identity and a healthy legal culture in a period of dynamic change — and I will soon turn over to my colleague Prof Ros Croucher

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16.07.2007

Promoting a healthy legal culture the focus of new Australian Academy of Law

Strengthening the ‘legal culture’ of an increasingly fragmented legal profession will be the focus of Australia’s newest ‘learned academy’, with today’s launch of the Australian Academy of Law (AAL) in Brisbane.In its landmark report on the civil justice system, Managing Justice (2000), the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) highlighted the problems associated with the lack of cohesion

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22.03.2007

Legal Studies Association, after dinner address

Prof David Weisbrot AM. President, Australian Law Reform Commission, Rydges Hotel, Rosehill, 22 March 2007 Introduction Thank you very much, Tracey, for that generous introduction. I very much enjoyed participating in the Legal Studies Association’s program last March, and I feel especially honoured to have been asked to deliver the After Dinner Address at this

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20.03.2007

UWS Symposium: Sedition, free speech and the war on terror

Prof David Weisbrot AM, President, Australian Law Reform Commission, 20 March 2007 Free speech or ‘sedition’?  Prohibitions on encouraging violence Introduction In its November 2005 package of anti-terrorism laws, the Government introduced a set of five ‘modernised sedition offences’, including:  three offences that prohibit ‘urging others to use force of violence’ to overthrow the Constitution or

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12.12.2006

Timely focus on credit laws

Tuesday, 12 December 2006: As many people rely on credit to help them through the festive season, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) today launched an Issues Paper calling for public comment on Australia ’s credit reporting system. ALRC President Prof David Weisbrot said the credit reporting provisions of the Commonwealth Privacy Act were overly

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30.11.2006

Lawyer–client relationships put under ALRC microscope

Thursday, 30 November 2006: The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) says its new review of legal professional privilege could have a major impact on the way clients and lawyers will interact in future. The ALRC inquiry will concentrate on the application of legal professional privilege to the coercive information gathering powers of Commonwealth bodies—such as

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09.10.2006

Computers, biometrics and Gen Y: Is privacy passé?

Monday 9 October 2006:  Do Australians feel that their privacy is adequately protected? Is it possible for privacy laws to keep up with technology such as data matching, facial recognition and even body odour measurement? Do younger people care as much about privacy as their elders? These are some of the questions being asked by

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13.09.2006

Support for anti-violence measures, not ‘sedition’

13 September 2006: Media commentators, satirists, artists and activists should be safe from controversial sedition laws—even if their ideas are unpopular and confronting—as long as they don’t urge the use of violence, under changes to federal law proposed by the Australian Law Reform Commission. The ALRC report, Fighting Words: A Review of Sedition Laws in

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