A wave of new federal and state laws have recently been introduced under the guise of protecting against hate speech and vilification. The Human Rights Law Centre is advocating to strengthen protections while also calling for evidence-based prevention and education programs.
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Human rights defenders, community groups, journalists, activists, and whistleblowers must be protected from being dragged through expensive and exhausting lawsuits by powerful corporations.
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Social media platforms should be a place where we can come together to connect. Instead, they are a place where powerful interests spread misinformation to devastating effect.
Recently, we have seen misinformation spread falsehoods and division in elections here and abroad. Misinformation is poisoning our democracy and causing real world harm to people and communities and weak laws and regulation are to blame.
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Transparency is essential for a healthy democracy. But from failing whistleblower protections to a broken freedom of information system and police raids on media companies, transparency is under threat in Australia.
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Misinformation is poisoning our democracy by distorting public debate, threatening peoples’ online safety, and causing real world harm to people and communities.
This is because Australia has weak laws that allow digital platforms to regulate themselves. Digital platforms profit from amplifying misinformation and hate speech. They will never fix the problem without government intervention.
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The Human Rights Law Centre's Whistleblower Project has turned one. Find out about our first year of impact protecting and empowering whistleblowers.
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Regrettably, in August, the High Court of Australia declined to hear an appeal by tax office whistleblower Richard Boyle.
Boyle will now face trial - and potential jail time - after blowing the whistle on unethical debt recovery practices at the Australian Taxation Office.
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Our right to protest is under threat. That’s why we are launching our new report Protest in Peril.
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The South Australian Court of Appeal rejected an appeal brought by tax office whistleblower Richard Boyle. Richard had spoken up about unethical debt recovery practices at the tax office. He has since been vindicated by several independent reviews. The outcome lays bare how our weak laws are failing whistleblowers. There is no public interest in prosecuting people speaking out against injustice and wrongdoing.
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David McBride was given a sentence of five years and eight months, with a non-parole period of two years and three months for leaking documents to the ABC which exposed war crimes in Afghanistan.
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The Human Rights Law Centre Whistleblower Project supported scientists, doctors, nurses and ecologists to speak out against a proposed petrochemical hub for processing gas planned for Darwin Harbour.
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David McBride sought to expose grave wrongdoing committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. In November 2023, David went on trial in the Supreme Court in Canberra for blowing the whistle.
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Disinformation is being used as a powerful weapon to gain public support for regressive movements that want to wind-back human rights. The Human Rights Law Centre is pushing for laws to prevent social media companies from amplifying lies and disinformation designed to distort important political debate.
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The Human Rights Law Centre has launched the Whistleblower Project, a new initiative to support people who speak out in the public interest.
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