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A growing murmur, loud enough for even politicians to pick up, CLArion Issue No 20200701, July 2020 is clearly indicating that we are not happy with secret trials. The CLA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ laws around them, and the laws around secret surveillance and CivilLibertiesAus/ panicked terrorism responses, are attracting people who say it’s Email newsletter of Civil Liberties Australia (A04043) Email: time for a total revision. Secretary(at)cla.asn.au Web: http://www.cla.asn.au/ We want our rights back. We don’t want powers given to ____________________________________________ administrators and/or police during a pandemic to be anything The worst of times may morph into best of times other than highly temporary. It’s time to restore our civil and political rights, not curtail them. With a virus threatening life on a planetary scale, the health of And most of all, we want crook, grasping, or crony politicians Australia’s fundamental principle of justice, the rule of law, is reined in. under serious threat. We demand a national integrity commission, with teeth, under In these worst of times, there’s hope that aggregated wrongs which all those with power over the people can be summoned may produce better understood liberties to account simply and easily. That includes politicians, • The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated with crystal bureaucrats, police, spooks and anyone else who cheat, game clarity that the simplest of freedoms and rights every or abuse the goodwill of Australians. Australian thought they ‘owned’ could be whisked away instantly – having friends or relatives over, going to the Taking back our House: it belongs to the people shops, walking on the beach, driving where and when you CLA member Dr Tony Murney, a security expert, has written a like, traveling interstate or overseas – all these were three-part series critiquing the excessive – and dangerous – suddenly at the whim of politicians. security measures at Parliament House in Canberra. • Courts stopped being open: Designed to keep Members safe, they put children at risk, he witnesses J and K and people says, and threaten an international incident if high-powered stained with the term weapons were ever used in anger. “whistleblowers” (Boyle (photo), Collaery, McBride) face rough justice, Read his series here: Pt 1: https://tinyurl.com/y9stzs4c Part 2: secretly administered to shut them up https://tinyurl.com/y8y7pffp Part 3: https://tinyurl.com/y8x6o3k3 and close them down. Wright delivers broadside over loss of privacy • For all of us, freedom of speech and The Law Council of Australia’s president, Pauline Wright, laid the sanctity of one’s own home disappeared when agents the stakes on the table last month in an article for News Ltd. raided the underwear drawers of a journo’s home, and the offices of ABC. “A few months ago, the federal government quietly began to • More police were charged with killing and assaulting clear a direct path between your private digital data and law Aborigines in Australia, and in the USA. We all learned enforcement agents. For the sake of your privacy, it's time to there’s a desperate ‘ kneed’ to make Black Lives Matter wake up and pay attention,” she said. like white lives. “The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (International • More politicians rorted expenses, granted themselves Production Orders) Bill, introduced in March, essentially allows titles out of the public eye, and spent tax revenue for party Australian law enforcement agencies to go straight to foreign political gain and to save their own seat of power, or that communications providers, such as Facebook and Microsoft, of their mates. and access your private data.” • Your digital life online is under threat (see next item). The She explained that currently ASIO and Australia’s myriad other nation’s existing politicians want to twist Australian spook entities can't do that: instead they have to make formal democracy to their own liking (see the item after that). govt-to-govt requests, which take time where time is a partial safeguard. Power is in the people: speaking out is needed The new bill proposes instant access to your private, Despite the above, there’s a growing acknowledgement that we commercial data held by US, British and other entities. are being let down by the people governing, surveilling, herding Australian security agencies would be able to siphon your data and policing us. instantly, straight from the source. A fight to regain rights appears to be under way, embryonically. Will transparency be buried with body of COAG? The Black Lives Matter movement is as worldwide as the President of Civil Liberties Australia, Dr Kristine Klugman, was pandemic, and a simple gesture by sporting teams is ramming one of the first in Australia to sound a warning bell over the home the need to reverse inequity. For the non-religious among federal government’s push for a ‘national cabinet’. us, kneeling suddenly has new meaning. We should be galvanised by the statement: Blessed are the meek… “The Prime Minister has declared the Council of Australian Governments, COAG, dead,” she wrote in a letter to the editor. At least 85% of Australians believe it is long past time Aborigines were better treated. But we can start by stopping “Instead he plans to make the National Cabinet of federal, state police abuse of them through assaults and shootings. And we and territory governments a permanent fixture ('COAG is dead, can change police culture by having independent investigators long live national cabinet', 29 May 2020). He argues that the so the <5% of bad police who do the wrong thing can be held to more “streamlined” and less ‘cumbersome’ nature of the account. Police unions should support the move: it will help the National Cabinet has made it successful in responding to image and repute of the 95%-plus of good police. Covid-19 and he thinks this will carry over into the future. Undoubtedly, we all need to speak out – shout, even– to “But will it? Is there any reason to believe that an arrangement demand greater personal privacy under legislation government set up to deal with an emergency will work for long and and from multi-billionaires who have stolen our lives and complicated negotiations on difficult issues? How long will the encapsulated them digitally for their personal profit. There must ‘goodwill’ of the National Cabinet last when it confronts the be a better way: there’s no reason Australia cannot find it and reality of disagreements over the management of the Murray- lead the world. Darling or the carve-up of the GST? Civil Liberties Australia A04043 CLArion – 1 July 2020 www.cla.asn.au 1 What the Australian Constitution says the system should be… “Mr Morrison criticises the ‘bureaucracy’ and EXECUTIVE PARLIAMENT JUDICIARY ‘paperwork’ of the old COAG system. But it was because of that paperwork that the public could know what was on the agenda and what decisions were reached. What the system is… “They could have their say on those decisions and they could follow up a month, a year or FOUR EXECUTIVE five years later to see whether those CORNERS JUDICIARY Sky decisions had been implemented. In other News National words, there was a measure of scrutiny and Cabinet PARLIAMENT accountability. LOBBIES: Farmers Defence/Security Industry “Will any of this be possible under the Banks/Insurance Nat Cab. Media Proprietor(s) Federation Ccl Federal National Cabinet? Or will it all be hidden away IPA Financial Doctors Reform Ccl Relations Police Australian under ‘cabinet confidentiality’?” Dr Klugman etc Local asked. Govt Assn Will it be more authoritarian? TASKFORCES, eg ROYAL COMMISSIONS, eg - Women’s safety/DV - Aged care Will Australia will become more authoritarian - Indigenous Affairs - People with Disability - Nat Bushfire Recovery - Natonal Natural Disasters on account of the COVID-19 health - Franchising - Police: Gangs, Tobacco, PARL. COMMITTEES. eg Financial crime, Assets measures? - Banks confiscation, Phoenix - Insurance industry companies, etc Civil Liberties Australia is concerned that - Security & Intelligence - Administration governments are always less enthusiastic sports grants - Northern Australia about reinstating rights than they are about - Covid-19 - Family Law system taking them away. - Corpns & Fin Services MISSING: With the demise of COAG: - Foreign Intereference through Meetings of groups such as “Australians have been promised that the Social Media - Attorneys-Gemeral/Police Ministers - Water/Murray-Darling Basin rights around freedom of movement - Transport - Delegated legislation - Industrial Relations - etc suspended to limit the spread of COVID-19 - Skills will be reinstated once the crisis is over,” CLA - Health - Education President Dr Kristine Klugman said. - Infrastructure - Sport “This is the same promise made when the - etc Australian government responded to the terrorist threat after 9/11. The 9/11 crisis is over and many of the rights ‘temporarily suspended’ then remain compromised.” found “guilty” by an external adjudicator of serially harassing six female associates. The suspension allowed for longer investigation periods, questioning and detention warrants for non-suspects including But you had to wait until the third paragraph of the chief judge’s family members, journalists, children and innocent bystanders. admission statement to find out that harassment was formally It also allowed the introduction of warrantless searches, control found to have occurred (“borne out”, Kiefel weasels), and until orders, more intrusive surveillance measures and evidence the sixth paragraph to find out who the ex-judge is. Heydon has procedures that exclude the defendant and their legal denied the allegations/findings through his lawyers. representatives amongst others. A retired former Inspector General of Intelligence and Security “Rights reinstatement after a crisis in other countries similar to (IGIS), Dr Vivienne Thom, examined the allegations…though Australia is grounded in legal protections for civil and political why she was chosen by Kiefel and crew is a mystery.

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