Category Archives: Law (Australia)

Nazi salute will be captured in proposed ban on hate symbols, Queensland government says

Posted on by

New bill also aims to ensure those who commit crimes motivated by prejudice face tougher penalties

Queensland’s attorney general has confirmed the Nazi salute will be captured under proposed laws that ban hate symbols and strengthen the state’s response vilification.

Shannon Fentiman said she had been “shocked” by the presence of Nazis at an anti-trans protest in Melbourne earlier this month.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Indigenous voice a ‘safe and sensible’ legal option that will not impede parliament, experts say

Posted on by

Change of wording to constitutional amendment increases parliament’s power over the advisory body amid concerns about its authority

Constitutional experts have backed the proposed Indigenous voice as a “safe and sensible” legal option, dismissing concerns that the advisory body would be too powerful.

Several advisers to the referendum process say a change to wording of the constitutional amendment confirms that parliament has power over the voice, and that the advisory body wouldn’t be a so-called “third chamber” as opponents have claimed.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia’s FOI backlog: 587 cases remain unresolved more than three years on

Posted on by

Evidence given to federal court reveals extensive delay in the review process, including 42 freedom of information cases languishing for five years

Almost 600 freedom of information cases have languished before the nation’s information commissioner for more than three years, including 42 that are still not resolved after half a decade.

The Office of the Australian Commissioner plays a critical role in the functioning of the FOI system, reviewing decisions made by government departments and ensuring documents are not unlawfully hidden from the public.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Second breastfeeding woman asked to leave Victorian court

Posted on by

Allowing mother and child, who was crying, to remain during closing remarks would distract jurors, judge says

A woman has been asked to leave a Victorian county court while breastfeeding an unsettled baby days after a judge ejected another woman who was also breastfeeding her child.

The judge’s move last week was criticised after he said the breastfeeding would “be a distraction for the jury at the very least”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

‘White saviours’ accused of finding flaws in voice proposal ‘to stay in spotlight’ by working group member

Posted on by

Thomas Mayo says it is now ‘crunch time’ for Australian government’s relationship with advisory group

Constitutional conservatives raising doubts about the proposed wording of the referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament have been accused of acting like “white saviours”, finding flaws with the proposal “just to stay in the spotlight”, according to a member of the government’s advisory group.

Thomas Mayo, a Kaurareg and Kalkalgal Erubamle man and working group member, said it was now “crunch time” for the government’s relationship with the advisory group.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australian Catholic order accused of waiting for paedophile to die and using death to shield it from abuse claims

Posted on by

Marist Brothers approach in seeking to halt a survivor’s case over a clergy member’s death would be ‘absolutely perverse’, court hears

A Catholic order allegedly sat on its hands for almost two years waiting for a notorious paedophile clergy member to die and is now using his death to claim it could no longer receive a fair trial against one of his victims, an approach described in court as “absolutely perverse”.

The Marist Brothers order is currently seeking to permanently halt a survivor’s case alleging abuse by the late Brother Francis “Romuald” Cable, arguing his death renders it unable to fairly defend itself because it can no longer call him as a witness.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Judge defends ejection of breastfeeding mother and baby from Melbourne court as ‘self-explanatory’

Posted on by

Doctors and advocates says move ‘not acceptable’ after judge asked a woman feeding her child while observing a trial to leave

A Victorian judge who has been criticised for ejecting a breastfeeding mother and her baby from his courtroom has described his actions as “self-explanatory”.

The woman was feeding her baby while observing a trial in Melbourne’s county court on Thursday when the judge addressed her directly, saying she was not permitted to breastfeed in court because it was a distraction.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Daniel Duggan says he faces ‘gross injustice’ if extradited to US in speech from Sydney prison

Posted on by

The former US marine pilot urges his audience to ‘say no to politically charged extraditions of Australian citizens’

In a speech from prison, the Australian pilot Daniel Duggan has said he faces a “gross injustice” if extradited to the US and, potentially, a “cruelly long sentence”, warning Australia against acquiescing to the demands of powerful countries.

The address, dictated by Duggan from his prison cell to his legal team, and read on his behalf on Saturday night in Sydney, urged his audience to “say no to Australia being a political lackey to any foreign government, as allies can be dangerous too”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Scott Morrison’s secret ministries used as grounds for Afghan man’s cancelled visa case

Posted on by

In court challenge, man argues decision by ex-home affairs minister Karen Andrews was not valid as Morrison had displaced her

An Afghan man has challenged Karen Andrews’s decision to cancel his visa in 2021, arguing that Scott Morrison’s multiple ministerial appointments displaced her as home affairs minister and rendered the decision void.

The federal court case, brought by a former employee of the US embassy in Afghanistan who is known as CEU22, indirectly challenges the validity of all visa cancellation decisions made personally by the minister from the date of Morrison’s appointment on 6 May 2021 to the Coalition’s election loss in May 2022.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Sydney Anglican church accuses law reform commission of double standard over religious school hiring

Posted on by

Submission says agency’s push to enable LGBTQ+ role models ‘preferences one worldview over another’

The Sydney Anglican church has accused the Australian Law Reform Commission of a “double standard” for seeking to give LGBTQ+ students role models while limiting the ability of religious schools to hire by faith.

The church’s submission to a review of exemptions for religious schools from discrimination law is part of a broader conservative backlash that has prompted the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to recommit the government to allowing schools to select staff based on faith.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Catholic church uses paedophile priest’s death to try to block NSW survivor’s lawsuit

Posted on by

Case is latest in series where church seeks to capitalise on landmark ruling that a priest’s death meant church could not receive a fair trial

The Catholic church is attempting to use the death of a paedophile, who had been jailed for the abuse of 17 children, to shield itself from further civil claims from his survivors.

In recent months, the church has adopted an increasingly aggressive approach to survivors in cases where paedophile clergy have died. It has sought to capitalise on a recent decision in New South Wales’s highest court that ruled a priest’s death meant the church could not receive a fair trial in a claim brought by a woman known as GLJ.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

‘Recipe for disaster’: Queensland bail law that overrides children’s human rights won’t work, experts say

Posted on by

Legal groups also criticise the push to override the state’s Human Rights Act to create the offence

Experts say there is zero evidence to support Annastacia Palaszczuk’s controversial decision to pursue criminal charges against Queensland children who breach bail.

Human rights organisations have also delivered scathing criticisms of the government’s bid to override the state’s Human Rights Act to legislate the offence for children, warning that it likely won’t reduce offending.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Allowing Indigenous man early access to pension could have ‘enormous’ consequences, court hears

Posted on by

Lawyer says the landmark case is about ‘correcting historical disadvantage’ embedded structurally in Aboriginal society

Allowing an Indigenous Australian man to access his aged pension early would lead to “enormous” consequences in other areas of the law, the federal court has heard.

The full federal court on Monday commenced hearings in a landmark case brought against the commonwealth by 65-year-old Wakka Wakka man, Uncle Dennis, who is seeking to access the pension three years early on the grounds that Indigenous Australians have a shorter average life expectancy than the non-Aboriginal population.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Shorter Indigenous life expectancy should mean lower pension age, court told

Posted on by

Landmark case from Indigenous man seeking to access pension three years early hears Australia fails to account for age gap from ‘racial disadvantage’

First Nations Australians should be granted access to the pension at a younger age due to a gap in life expectancy “which is closely connected to race”, the federal court has heard.

The full federal court on Monday commenced hearings in a landmark case brought against the commonwealth by 65-year-old Indigenous man, Uncle Dennis, who is seeking to access the pension three years early.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Woolworths expands self-checkout AI that critics say treats ‘every customer as a suspect’

Posted on by

Supermarket says cameras used to detect accidental wrong scans while experts say the technology is ‘punitive’ and call for reforms to protect privacy

Woolworths has expanded the use of technology that films customers scanning items at self-checkouts to 110 stores in three states, as critics say the functionality could make people feel they are under constant surveillance.

For the past year, Woolworths has trialled new self-checkouts with cameras installed overhead to observe customers scanning items. The company said artificial intelligence is used to detect when items are not scanned correctly, with footage of the scan recorded and played back to the customer instructing them to re-scan.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

HarperCollins refused appeal in defamation case over claims made in Scientology book

Posted on by

High court decision relates to previous judgment on allegations of controversial psychiatric treatments at Sydney’s Chelmsford private hospital

HarperCollins has failed in a bid to have Australia’s highest court rule on legal issues in a defamation case over controversial psychiatric treatments at Sydney’s Chelmsford private hospital.

The high court on Friday refused special leave to appeal two aspects of a federal court decision overturning an earlier judgment. That earlier judgment found claims in Steve Cannane’s book Fair Game: The Incredible Untold Story of Scientology in Australia were substantially true.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

‘I really was broken’: survivor welcomes Dominic Perrottet agreeing to ban gay conversion practices

Posted on by

NSW premier gives bill ‘in-principle’ support as independent Alex Greenwich hails a ‘good day for our state’

Growing up as a teenager in the suburbs of Sydney, Chris Csabs was led to believe he needed to be “fixed”.

“I was gay and had grown up steeped in an ideology that told me that God had not made me that way. That there was a negative cause to my homosexuality,” he said.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Egyptian challenging Australia’s indefinite detention warned he faces forced removal within month

Posted on by

Tony Sami, held for 10 years, is fighting to stay with his two children and had been preparing for landmark high court case

An Egyptian man challenging the lawfulness of Australia’s indefinite detention system in the high court has been warned that Border Force is preparing to remove him from the country “unwillingly” within a month if he doesn’t agree to leave on a commercial flight.

Tony Sami, who has been detained for a decade after his visa was cancelled in 2012 and who is fighting to stay in Australia to be with his two children, had been preparing for a landmark case that could determine the freedom of hundreds of asylum seekers and detainees.

Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Continue reading...

‘Disgraceful and gutless’: Queensland deputy premier pilloried for attack on judiciary

Posted on by

Steven Miles said a magistrate’s decision to release children locked in Townsville watch house was ‘a media stunt’

Queensland’s deputy premier, Steven Miles, has been accused of engaging in a “disgraceful” breach of the separation of powers for claiming the safety of residents was being “held to ransom by rogue courts and rogue justices”.

At a press conference on Friday, Miles said a decision by a Townsville magistrate to release several children being held on remand in the local watch house was a “media stunt”, prompting fierce pushback from civil liberties veteran Terry O’Gorman.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Victorian government must overhaul bail laws to create ‘meaningful’ change, legal groups say

Posted on by

Advocates concerned after Daniel Andrews suggested looking at offence types rather than scrapping controversial 2018 changes

Changes to Victoria’s bail laws would be nothing more than cosmetic if the government does not scrap the “reverse onus” bail provisions that have led to a near doubling of Aboriginal women in custody, legal groups have warned.

The Victorian government has committed to reforming the Bail Act after a damning coroner’s report into the death in custody of Veronica Nelson found it was “incompatible” with the state’s charter of human rights and discriminatory towards First Nations people.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...