Human rights and legal organisations today welcomed proposals by the Australian Law Reform Commission to strengthen Australia’s corporate criminal laws in relation to human rights abuses committed by Australian companies overseas.

A long awaited report from a Parliamentary committee has recognised the need for significant legal changes to protect public interest journalism, however the recommendations don’t go far enough to ensure journalists are not sent to prison for doing their job.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) will not prosecute two police officers involved in the death of proud Yorta Yorta woman, Tanya Day, despite the Coroner referring the police officers involved in her death for criminal investigation, saying she believed “an indictable offence may have been committed”.

With reports today of nearly 130 young people - some as young as 13 - being locked in their cells indefinitely due to the threat of COVID-19, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal and human rights organisations are calling on the Palaszczuk Government to reduce the number of children locked away in Queensland prisons rather than isolating and harming them.

The Human Rights Law Centre has urged the New South Wales Parliament reject a bill that would create unbalanced protections against religious discrimination.

On 10 August 2020, the Federal Court ordered the Federal Government to stop detaining a 68 year old man at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation, due to the health risks of COVID-19.

Private security contractors have used excessive force against people in Australian immigration detention centres, a damning new report by the independent detention monitoring body has found.

In response to Premier Andrew’s declaration of a state of disaster in Victoria, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal and human rights organisations are calling for strong safeguards to ensure that police powers are exercised fairly and proportionately during the public health crisis.

Several members of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee have today found that the Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton has failed to justify the need for sweeping new powers that would undermine transparency in immigration detention.

The Morrison Government must act urgently to ensure the safety of people it continues to detain in indefinite offshore detention in Papua New Guinea, with the country’s pandemic chief warning that the COVID-19 outbreak could overwhelm its health system within days.

Aboriginal-led, medical, legal and human rights organisations today condemned State and Territory lawmakers who failed at today’s Council of Attorneys-General meeting to commit to raise the age at which children can be locked away in a prison.

New Zealand granting Behrouz Boochani asylum is a strong reminder to the Morrison Government that there is a viable solution to 7 years of failed asylum policy.