CONTENTS Page NSWCCL Hitlist 3 Speakers' Corner Dr Alison Broinowski 5 Reports 7 Q & a Donna Lieberman Tony Kevin 13 16 Ac
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September 2005 NOTICE OF CONTENTS Page ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE NSWCCL Hitlist 3 NEW SOUTH WALES COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES INC. Speakers’ Corner 5 Dr Alison Broinowski To be held at 6.00 pm on Wednesday 26 October 2005 at the Lady Mayoress’ Room, Reports 7 Sydney Town Hall, George Street, Sydney. Q & A A nomination form is enclosed for all those Donna Lieberman 13 NSWCCL members wishing to nominate Tony Kevin 16 for a position on the NSWCCL Committee for 2005/2006. Activities 19 All motions on notice for consideration at Comment 23 the AGM must be received by NSWCCL office no later than 3 October 2005. Reviews 29 Print Post Approved PP/24359/00069 Bill of Rights Watch 31 CIVIL LIBERTY Journal of the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties Inc. postal address: PO Box 201 GLEBE NSW 2037 telephone: 02 9660 7582 fax: 02 9566 4162 email: [email protected] website: www.nswccl.org.au COMMITTEES 2004–2005 COMMITTEE MEETINGS Meetings are usually held at 6.30pm on the Executive fourth Wednesday of the month, at the Cameron Murphy President Council’s office, 149 St Johns Rd, Glebe. David Bernie Vice President Members are welcome to attend as observers. Pauline Wright Vice President Stephen Blanks Secretary David Leung Treasurer SUBCOMMITTEE MEETINGS Aaron Magner Assistant Secretary Subcommittees usually meet monthly. For Michael Walton Committee Rep further information, please contact the Executive Secretary who can put you in contact with the relevant convenor. Committee Fundraising/Finance Jeremy Adair Convenor: David Leung Martin Bibby Ken Buckley Civil Rights Matcham Caine Convenor: Doug Nicholson Susan Cleary Criminal Justice Kep Enderby Convenor: Michael Walton Leah Friedman Mark Hanna Complaints Michael Kennedy Convenor: Michael Kennedy Joan Kersey Publications Rita Mallia Convenor: Jeremy Adair Frances McGowan Doug Nicholson Legal Panel Kevin O’Rourke Convenor: Stephen Blanks Barri Phatarford ICCPR Shadow Report Convenor: Michael Walton Marketing Susan Smith Executive Secretary Convenor: Pauline Wright Australian Prisoners Abroad Convenor: Kevin O’Rourke J.C. Cheadle Honorary Auditor Views expressed in this journal are not W.L.Browne & Associates necessarily those of the editor or of the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties Inc. Jeremy Adair Editor David Leung Designer Copyright © New South Wales Council for Vince O’Farrell, Cartoons Civil Liberties Inc. Sydney. All rights The Illawarra Mercury reserved. September 2005 Civil Liberty The following are activities in which NSWCCL have recently been or are currently involved in. For more information, read the relevant subcommittee reports further in the journal, or contact the NSWCCL office ([email protected] & tel: 02 9960 7582) or log on to the NSWCCL website at: www.nswccl.org.au 1 Court victory: Court directs the acquittal of a student accused of aiding and abetting an escaped asylum seeker to obtain a false passport. See Legal Panel report later in the journal. 2 Surveillance and Privacy: NSWCCL appeared before the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee on 15 June 2005 in relation to the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Telecommunications Interception and Other Measures) Bill 2005. The transcript is at: http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/committee/S8384.pdf 3 Submission: to the Review of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) questioning and detention Powers. 4 Drug offences: NSWCCL to make submissions to an inquiry into the provisions of the Law and Justice Legislation Amendment (Serious Drug Offences and Other Measures) Bill 2005. 5 Death Penalty: NSWCCL organized a forum, Capital Punishment and Contemporary Issues, held in Canberra on 20 June. 6 Death Penalty: formulating a draft federal Bill to adopt the Second Optional Protocol into domestic law. Australia is a signatory to the Second Optional Protocol, a United Nations treaty which promotes the elimination of the death penalty. 7 Submission: made to Australian Bureau of Statistics in relation to the Census Longitudinal Dataset proposal. Submission is available on NSWCCL website: www.nswccl.org.au 8 Attorney‐General’s NGO Human Rights Forum: NSWCCL attended forum on 17 June. 9 Mental Health Conditions in Detention: NSWCCL members met with concerned psychiatrists on 1 June 2005 in regards to government liability for mental health issues in detention and agreed to act in suitable legal proceedings. 10 ICCPR Subcommittee: preparing shadow report to the UN Human Rights Committee under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. See subcommittee report later in the journal. 11 Australian Prisoners Abroad: Subcommittee established to look into the interests of Australians imprisoned overseas. For more information, see subcommittee report later in the journal. 12 National Meeting of Councils for Civil Liberties: took place on the 25–26 June 2005. For more information, see report later in the journal. 13 International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance (ICAMS): NSWCCL working on local submission. See report later in the journal. 14 Safety Committee for CCTV: Sydney City Council invites NSWCCL to sit on the committee auditing the use of the CCTV surveillance in Sydney CBD. 15 Smart technologies forum conducted by Department of Human Services: NSWCCL represented at forum on 27 July, by invitation of the Privacy Commissioner. Follow up meetings also attended. 16 Sniffer Dogs: NSWCCL to address Club Health 2005, a conference organized by The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, on sniffer dogs and their impact on night‐clubbers. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you,then they fight you, then you win. – Mahatma Gandhi 3 Civil Liberty September 2005 NSWCCL is becoming increasingly busy as time goes by. While addressing new laws on both the state and federal level, the Council has its work cut out. With the withdrawal of federal funding a few years ago, NSWCCL has been forced to stand on its own two feet. In considering a number of options, steps have been taken to address the financial shortfall through establishing a marketing subcommittee. Two other new subcommittees are now in place with an international flavour. The ICCPR subcommittee and Australian Prisoners Abroad. Details of which can found in this issue below. It is worth noting to all members that NSWCCL has a new email address that is a little easier to remember. It is <[email protected]>. Please direct all email communications to this address in the future. This is the last issue of Civil Liberty before the next Annual General Meeting. Members may recall that a motion was deferred from the last AGM to the upcoming AGM. Following is a notice of the deferred motion. Annual General Meeting 2005 Motion on Notice (deferred from 2004 AGM) Motion: That the members are in favour of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties borrowing an amount determined by the Executive Committee up to a maximum of $100,000 secured by a mortgage over its property at Glebe in order to meet the expenses of the activities of the Council. Background information (to AGM 2004): The Council's expenses over the last few years have not been covered by its income, and as a result the cash reserves of the Council presently stand at around $40,000, down from over $100,000 a few years ago. The Council's annual expenses run at about $50,000 per annum, and the committee's view is that these cannot be significantly cut without seriously impacting on the extent of the Council's activities. The Council has a major asset in its building, which is worth over $700,000. The Council's finances have been impacted by the withdrawal some years ago of funding from the Commonwealth Government, which used to be around $12,000 per annum, and the fact that no major fundraising events have been undertaken or are in contemplation. The Committee has sought to raise funds through letters seeking donations from members and others, but these have not had a major impact to date. The Committee considers it prudent to canvas the views of the membership as to the funding of the Council's activities. The Committee has considered options involving the sale of the Glebe property, but is not in favour of those options. The Committee considers the proposal of borrowing against the security of the property to be the most desirable option at this stage, and seeks the approval of the members of this position. JOURNAL DEADLINE DATES Material Deadline: 4th November 2005 If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for We may not be able to accept people we despise, we documents that are not sent on disk or don’t believe in it at by email attachment. Digital images will be accepted. all. - Noam Chomsky Articles: 1000–2000 words, reviews 500 words and letters 200–300 words. 4 September 2005 Civil Liberty The Third Try: Can the UN Work? by Dr Alison Broinowski On Friday 20 May 2005, Dr Alison Broinowski addressed a NSWCCL fundraising lunch at Parliament House in Sydney. A former Australian diplomat, Dr Broinowski has worked in Japan, the Philippines, Jordan, and New York (UN) and has written or edited eight books on aspects of the interface between Australia and Asia. She is a visiting fellow at ANU and UNSW. Her forthcoming book, with James Wilkinson, is ‘The Third Try: Can the UN Work?’ The following is a summary of her speech. This being 2005, it is the 60th birthday of the United Nations. This year, we will hear more than usual from the friends and enemies of the UN; from people who want to go on with the organization we have; from people who would like to see the international organization done away with; and from people who want to replace it with something else. One thing on which everyone is agreed is that the UN could work better.