Trump’s unsophisticated rights rhetoric
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recently: … called for a new civil rights agenda that includes the right to a safe community, the right to a great education and.
The truth behind ‘Harmony Day’
Who would have thought that Al Grassby would be back in fashion? Attorney-General Christian Porter, it appears. Grassby was Australia’s first community relations commissioner, appointed under the original Racial.
Talking up ‘common law rights’
When the Australian Law Reform Commission published its interim report on its “freedoms” inquiry, I wrote that the government was on the back foot. Attorney-General George Brandis had asked.
Australia and its UN human rights obligations
Attorney-General George Brandis, spoke with host Barrie Cassidy on ABC TV’s Insiders, September 27, 2015. BARRIE CASSIDY: Now this other issue on the UN envoy who postponed a visit.
Plenty of Australia’s laws limit common law freedoms
In its interim report on what Attorney-General George Brandis calls “traditional rights, freedoms and privileges” (common law rights), the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has given Brandis – and.
Human rights need to inform our public debate
Human rights are largely absent from public policy debate in Australia. Quite simply, human rights don’t matter when public leaders and commentators assess the merits of policy and laws..
Reflections on legal education and social justice
Reflections on legal education and social justice, from Open Hand, newsletter of Law Reform and Social Justice (LRSJ) at the ANU College of Law. December 2010: Contrary to a.
Generous limits on free racist speech
Early in 2014, federal Attorney-General George Brandis released a proposal to significantly amend our law against racial vilification, Sections 18C and 18D of the Racial Discrimination Act, on the.
The case against free racist speech
I have spent a professional lifetime trying to get people to know about (let alone respect) anti-discrimination law, and suddenly everyone knows about ‘section 18C’. For all the wrong.
Race hate law reform is free speech on steroids
Holocaust denier Fredrick Toben would never have breached federal racial vilification law under the Federal Government’s proposed changes – that’s how weak they are. Senator George Brandis cannot be.