Proposed reforms abandon racial vilification protection
Federal Attorney-General George Brandis is serious when he says that under his watch, ‘people do have a right to be bigots’. As drafted (and it is very poorly drafted),.
Racially based threats of violence merit little protection
In the Australian newspaper on 12 April 2013, the Institute of Public Affairs’ Simon Breheny described as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘a radical expansion of the law as it currently stands’.
Government gives up on discrimination reform
The Commonwealth government has announced [20 March 2013] discrimination protection for sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status. But the reform is a hollow one, and will only disappoint..
Legal aid and a just and equitable society
It is time to transform the disregard that government has for the role of legal aid in a just and equitable society. A fundamental re-assessment is needed, of whether.
Shifting the burden of proof in discrimination law
It’s not hard to know when you’ve been discriminated against; it’s much, much harder to prove it. After almost 50 years of federal, state and territory anti-discrimination laws, this.
Race, religion, and intersectional vilification
Australia is obliged under international human rights law to prohibit incitement to racial hatred (Article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). The Commonwealth, every state,.
Justice Virginia Bell, a CLC lawyer …
It is now notorious that the most recent appointment to the High Court, Justice Virginia Bell, once worked as a solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre in Sydney. Many, including.
Minorities, the marginalised, and Kirby J’s decisions
Hosting a trivia quiz on law reform and social justice, I warned contestants that, despite their instincts, the answer to four of the 10 questions was not ‘Michael Kirby’..
‘Police Verbals’, Mutant Death; Big Home Productions (EP), 1984
In Australia’s punk music scene in the early 1980s, The Black Assassins were said to be ‘Brisbane’s Ugliest Band’,(1) a reference to their appearance, not their music. Brisbane’s loss.
MARIE CLAIRE, the ‘human rights’ issue
I was driving up Oxford St in Sydney. Above Taylor Square a billboard advertised the October 2008 issue of Marie Claire with a series of words and phrases, along.