Yesterday the Australian Human Rights Commission has announced the second inquiry into the human rights of children in immigration detention. See: www.humanrights.gov.au/national-inquiry-children-immigration-detention-2014 Between 2002 and 2004 I as the Australian Human Rights Commissioner have conducted the first inquiry that resulted in a report ‘A Last Resort? National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention’ tabled in […]
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Kids in detention: New AHRC Inquiry
Tuesday, February 4th, 2014The Local Government Referendum
Wednesday, June 19th, 2013This week, the Parliament has been debating the Constitution Alteration (Local Government) Bill 2013. It is the legislation to authorise the amendment of the Constitution to recognise local government. If the referendum is successful, section 96 of the Constitution will read as follows: During a period of ten years after the establishment of the Commonwealth and […]
Continue Reading...Freedom of speech, freedom of expression and the Bolt decision
Friday, September 30th, 2011Those in doubt that the Andrew Bolt case is about free speech need only think about the contortions of logic necessary to dismissing the proposition that it is about free speech. On his blog, my friend Mark Bahnisch says that “free speech is not at issue here” before observing that “[f]ree speech, as the judgment […]
Continue Reading...IPCC an unreliable witness
Thursday, June 10th, 2010I’ve met lawyers who tell me I should just accept the IPCC view. For members of a profession paid to scrutinise each last detail of their opponents case this strikes me as bizarre. One US academic lawyer takes a different view and puts the IPCC in the box and finds it an unreliable witness.
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