2Col 09 SEPT 2020 Clarion
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CLArion Issue No 20200901, September 2020 CLA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CivilLibertiesAus/ Email newsletter of Civil Liberties Australia (A04043) Email: Secretary(at)cla.asn.au Web: http://www.cla.asn.au/ ____________________________________________ Covid-19 vaccination: CLA’s position If a vaccine is found for the Covid-19 virus, in general it should NOT be mandatory for Australians to be vaccinated, CLA believes. When Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the vaccine would be mandatory, he misspoke: within hours he had walked back his comments significantly. CLA’s policy on accessing health is: are not willing to be vaccinated. Sometimes this will not be possible. • Everyone has the right to equal access to publicly- provided health services, and to receive or refuse medical While children are apparently not largely affected by Covid-19, treatment. Mental health patients have the same rights. they may be significant carriers. It is possible that children and others could be prevented from visiting places such as aged • In the absence of informed consent, ideally no one should be forced to have any medical treatment. If treatment is care homes for a number of years, until widespread (“herd”) needed for urgent or life-saving reasons (as sometimes protection is in place. ordered by a court), the least intrusive or invasive CLA in general supports the measures for introducing one or treatment should be given. more Covid-19 vaccines to Australia. But these are preliminary • If governments or businesses seek to make vaccination a comments. Much more information will be needed before any of compulsory requirement to access benefits, services, us can sign off on a specific vaccine or vaccination policy. places of education or specific jobs, it must be rationally based, limited to the least restrictive requirements and Comments on Covid-19 matters: address any equity issues - such as making vaccination ‘The longer term consequences of the pandemic may be free and responding quickly to any safety issues. fewer citizens’ rights’ • Children (in relation to immunisation like for measles- mumps-rubella, and polio) also have individual rights re by Andrew Farran, 21 August 2020, P&I blog: https:// vaccination, which is the choice made for others: https:// tinyurl.com/y58cdu39 www.cla.asn.au/News/vaccination-the-choice-made-for/ Where does Australia fit? List of 30 countries using pandemic • Patients have the right to their own records; health care measures in authoritarian manner: providers must be accountable. https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/dygbxk/these-30-regimes- • Everyone has the right to give binding health directions in are-using-coronavirus-to-repress-their-citizens case they subsequently become incompetent. Federal govt lags the western world in aged care In relation to Covid-19, it is likely that governments will make being vaccinated compulsory for some people for good Australia could immediately set up independent, transparent, community health reasons. Examples are: routine monitoring and public reporting of federal aged care • health workers, hospital workers, aged care workers; quality as Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, and the USA have done, a Royal Commission report showed last • prison guards; and month. • where mass outbreaks of disease are likely/possible. Currently the Australian government has no care quality Beyond such people/places, it will be up to the health outcome reporting for home care and reports on only departments of federal, state and territory governments to three indicators for residential care, the Royal Commission into convince their citizens by informing them, educating them and Aged Care Quality and Safety said. answering questions that any proposed state-provided or state- The RC commissioned research from the SA Health and subsidised vaccine should be taken, for their own good and the Medical Research Institute. Their findings show quality outcome good of the community. indicators can be produced from existing data without any CLA does not believe this will be hard to do: we expect upwards burden to aged care providers. of 75% of people to be instantly supportive of being vaccinated, “This includes indicators for medication-related quality of care, before any promotional campaigns to boost numbers. falls and fractures, hospital re-admissions, hospitalisation for It is likely that governments will use incentives, perhaps tax or dementia/delirium, pain, premature mortality, pressure injury, other concessions, to promote vaccination. They may also use utilisation of care plans and medication reviews, and weight penalties – or omissions – for people who are not vaccinated loss/malnutrition,” the RC said last month. against Covid-19 (for example, they may not be permitted to See Research Paper 8 – International and National Quality and attend packed football matches or netball games). Safety Indicators for Aged Care In the private sector, employers may be able to insist on vaccination as terms/conditions of employment. Fly-In, Fly-Out Kirby on civil liberties: The lesson of this century (20th: (FIFO) mine workers are examples. Anywhere where close Ed.) is that democracy is not an absolute. Unbridled living/working is usual, such as on a fishing trawler, or in show majoritarianism can be a most oppressive tyranny. The business, could be other examples. Businesses should, essence of democracy, as we now understand it, lies in the however, be able to demonstrate why a specific role requires way it treats vulnerable minorities. Indeed, that is the abiding vaccination and try to offer individuals alternative work if they lesson of civil liberties. There is no human right of Australian vaccine candidate, in trials now. democracy to denigrate or abuse women or children. There is no right to democracy that stigmatises people on the Civil Liberties Australia A04043 CLArion – 1 September 2020 www.cla.asn.au 1 grounds of race or skin colour. Democracy meets its limits whistleblower David McBride, are all labouring under the weight when it discriminates on the grounds of religion, handicap, and the cloak of these orders. age or sexual orientation. “And there is not a terrorist or extremist among any of the – Michael Kirby, later judge of the High Court of accused. In fact, they are all men who served their country Australia, speaking as President of the NSW Court of honourably and felt morally compelled to reveal dishonourable Appeal on 13 April 1995 activities.” – Kieran Adair writing at https://tinyurl.com/y6t788mw Muzzled journos speak out for ODD SPOT: About 70 % of us don’t trust pollies press freedom Only 31% of citizens trusted Australian public services, and just Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom 25% believed they could “successfully implement changes to director Peter Greste (photo), appearing meet the needs of all Australians”. These were the results of a at a Senate inquiry into press freedom government survey of 5103 Australians in March 2019 to last month, called for a “comprehensive “better understand citizen attitudes and satisfaction with the media freedom act” to enshrine public service”. But since then those results, and others in protections in law. surveys of 2500 citizens every four months, have been withheld. While the figures have gyrated wildly – due to the “The state of press freedom in Australia government’s response to bushfires, then Covid-19 – the is so grim that over the past two years underlying figures back up ANU’s Australian Electoral Surveys we’ve slipped eight places on the analyses, which have shown similar abysmal levels of trust in Reporters Without Borders world press freedom rankings,” he politicians and the government in general. https://tinyurl.com/ said. Australia currently sits 26th, below countries including y63tvr5b Samoa, Canada, Germany and NZ. https://tinyurl.com/zv9ddct The Senate’s Environment and Communications References Rights committee splintering on party lines Committee is inquiring into press freedom, and is due to report Liberal and National Party members of the Parliamentary Joint early in 2021. Committee on Human Rights were “aiding and abetting” the Journalists told the inquiry that a raft of press freedom issues government’s creation of a police and surveillance state, need fixing, such as reforming FOI laws, limiting documents the Greens justice spokesman, Nick McKim, said last month. government marks “secret”, and providing greater protections His outburst – long overdue, CLA says – comes after the for whistleblowers. committee split along on party lines on two bills, involving ASIO They pointed out that, under Australia’s Crimes Act, receiving a and refugees. government document without permission is punishable by up McKim said that Coalition members of the committee were to seven years in jail. https://tinyurl.com/y5wkskpe politicising it. They were ignoring formal legal advice. Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence The human rights committee last month reported on a bill and Security, which CLA shorthands to ‘SIC’ for Security and amending ASIO powers, so it could secretly question children Intelligence Committee, has also been inquiring into press as young as 14. Separately, the committee considered a freedom. It is inquiriing into “the impact of the exercise of law proposed change to the Migration Amendment (Prohibiting enforcement and intelligence powers on the freedom of the Items in Immigration Detention Facilities) Bill 2020 that would press”. allow the government to ban phones in immigration jails. The SIC inquiry’s press “freedom” report was published in late Virtually the only way the Australian public has found out about August 2020: https://tinyurl.com/yygjl4b8 We have not yet had dark doings, deaths and human rights abuses in immigration time to digest it. jails has been by detainees communicating what’s happened by Porter fails in his legal duty: Adair audio, video, text and photos. But Coalition members of the committee endorsed the Attorney-General Christian Porter has admitted failing to proposed draconian laws, even though the formal legal advice disclose his use of controversial National Security Information said that they raised significant human rights concerns.