23.12.2008

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

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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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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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29.05.2006

‘Sedition’ should go, focus on urging violence

Monday, 29 May 2006: The term ‘sedition’ should be removed from the federal statute book, and offences urging force or violence against the government or community groups should be redrafted, the Australian Law Reform Commission said today. Releasing a Discussion Paper (DP 71) on federal sedition laws, ALRC President Professor David Weisbrot said the proposals

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20.03.2006

Are sedition laws necessary and effective?

Monday, 20 March 2006: An independent review of federal sedition laws is asking whether the controversial laws are necessary and effective. Australian Law Reform Commission President, Professor David Weisbrot, called for public comment today with the release of a community consultation paper Review of Sedition Laws (ALRC Issues Paper 30). The federal government ‘modernised’ the

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02.03.2006

Sedition law review must strike a delicate balance

Thursday, 2 March 2006: Concern to protect the security of Australians here and abroad must be balanced against the fundamental rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association, in the Australian Law Reform Commission’s new inquiry into controversial federal sedition laws. ALRC President Professor David Weisbrot said that Australians place a “very high premium

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