Posts in Submissions
Democracy and the union movement

At a time when wage theft is making headlines, wages growth is at record lows and work is becoming increasingly insecure, the advocacy work that trade unions do on behalf of workers has never been more important. Trade unions play an integral role in a healthy democracy and serve as an important mechanism to help workers exercise their right to safe and fair work conditions.

The Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019 (Cth) (the proposed law) proposes amendments to the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 (Cth). While it is framed by the Federal Government as reform aimed at addressing serious crime and misconduct in the trade union movement, the proposed law will weaken and undermine the democratic operation of the trade union movement internally and drastically limits its ability to perform its function in a democratic society.

Read the Human Rights Law Centre’s submission: Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019.

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Submission: Safeguarding our Democracy

The June 2019 Australian Federal Police (AFP) raids on the ABC’s Sydney headquarters and Annika Smethurst’s home laid bare some critical tensions in our democratic systems that need urgent attention.

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies are tasked with keeping us safe and protecting our democracy. That is why we entrust them with extraordinary powers that go well beyond what ordinary citizens can lawfully do.

However, Australian authorities now have extensive powers to monitor citizens’ communications and devices, including those of whistleblowers and journalists. When granting those new powers to law enforcement and intelligence agencies, Parliament has not imposed corresponding safeguards to ensure that these powers are not misused and do not disproportionately limit our right to privacy, freedom of expression and the maintenance of a healthy democracy.

Read our submission to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee inquiry on press freedom.

27 August 2019.

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