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 …
News/Media Release
Read moreReview of Secrecy Laws (IP 34)
IP 34 (released December 2008) is the first consultation document produced during the course of the Secrecy Inquiry. It identifies the main issues relevant to the Inquiry, provides background information and encourages informed community participation.View IP 34 in HTML on the AustLII website.
Publications
Read moreDo 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 …
News/Media Release
Read moreFor Your Information: Australian Privacy Law and Practice (ALRC Report 108)
ALRC Report 108 (tabled August 2008) represents the culmination of a 28-month inquiry into the extent to which the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and related laws continue to provide an effective framework for the protection of privacy in Australia.This Inquiry resulted in a three-volume report, containing 74 chapters and 295 recommendations for reform.The central theme …
Publications
Read moreALRC to tackle government secrecy laws
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 secrecy provisions in federal legislation. The Terms of Reference ask the ALRC to focus on: ‘the importance of balancing the need to protect Commonwealth information and …
News/Media Release
Read moreUWS 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 …
News/Media Release
Read moreFighting Words: A Review of Sedition Laws in Australia (ALRC Report 104)
ALRC Report 104 (tabled 13 December 2006) is the final report of the ALRC’s Inquiry into sedition offences contained in the Commonwealth Criminal Code and related offences in Part IIA of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth).Historically, sedition law has been used to suppress political dissent, punishing speech that is critical of the established order. Stakeholders, …
Publications
Read moreSupport 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 …
News/Media Release
Read moreSedition
In this Inquiry, the ALRC examined the offence of sedition as amended by federal Parliament in 2005.Historically, sedition law has been used to suppress political dissent, punishing speech that is critical of the established order. Stakeholders, including politicians across party lines, the media, and a Senate inquiry expressed concerns that sedition laws introduced by the …
Inquiries
Read morePrivacy law and practice
This 28-month inquiry looked at the extent to which the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and related laws continue to provide an effective framework for the protection of privacy in Australia. It resulted in the Final Report, For Your Information: Australian Privacy Law and Practice (ALRC Report 108).During the ALRC’s extensive consultations around the country, the …
Inquiries
Read more