Policies/Civil and Digital Liberties

Institute new legal protections for free speech and related rights

 * Legislate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights into law.
 * Restore the role of human rights commissioner with a mandate to focus on civil liberties and freedom of speech, expression and assembly.
 * Offer a referendum for a bill of rights focused on individual liberties including speech and assembly (see Bill of Rights policy).
 * Improve safeguards in counter-terrorism mechanisms.
 * Reform classification and classification review boards.
 * Implement a co-regulatory model where industry classifies their own content and Government works with industry to determine classification ratings.
 * This system will be akin to European PEGI model or American ESRB model of voluntary classification for media.
 * Unclassified content will be restricted for sale to adults only.
 * All classification guidelines must be transparent and published, in accordance with the principle that a classification scheme should be used for consumer awareness and not censorship.
 * Abolish the Refused Classification (RC) rating from the classification system.
 * Content that is illegal under the law will continue to be disallowed for sale, distribution or presentation.
 * Change the role of the Classification Board to be an advisory and review role, renaming it to the Australian Classification Ombudsman, which would review the guidelines and investigate complaints about media which is incorrectly or poorly classified.
 * Ensure the government and its representatives provide vigorous defence of free speech in international forums and negotiations.

Increase legal protections for privacy

 * Enact higher standards of privacy protection for entities holding private data.
 * Entities to complete privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs).
 * Data security safeguards may be recommended by the PIA, with legal sanctions in the event of failure to comply.
 * Projects in receipt of Government funding and with potential negative privacy impacts to be assessed prior to commencement.
 * These assessments may be completed on behalf of a service by the responsible Government agency.
 * Government agencies and private organisations to be obliged to report data breaches.
 * Substance Testing in the Workplace to be subject to tighter controls.
 * Mandatory Privacy Impact Assessments to be conducted prior to introduction of compulsory testing.
 * Assessments must include consultation with affected persons and assessment of whatever risks the testing is intended to address.
 * All affected persons to be granted explicit information on purpose of the tests, procedures to be employed, disclosure and use of information, and rights of the individual.
 * Enact additional protection for individual privacy in the public sphere.
 * Institute recommendations from the Australian Privacy Foundation on providing a right to recourse following an invasion of privacy.
 * Publication of private data in the media to be subject to a public interest threshold.
 * Public interest threshold will be met in cases of relevance to performance of public office, relevance to corporate or civil society, credibility of public statements, illegal, corrupt or anti-social behaviour, or a significant event.
 * Complaints mechanisms and legal sanctions to apply where the public interest threshold is not met.
 * Exceptions will include cases of consent, self-published information, and public behaviour.
 * Ensure the office of the Privacy Commissioner is subject to periodic reviews by a member of the judiciary, to examine performance and functions.
 * Provide a legal right for members of the public to appeal Privacy Commissioner decisions.
 * Institute tighter controls and accountability covering use of visual surveillance.
 * Organisations conducting surveillance to state the purpose of surveillance and identify recipients of surveillance information, with legal sanctions in cases of misuse
 * Periodic destruction of surveillance material to be mandatory.
 * Exceptions may be granted subject to judicial oversight.
 * Surveillance programs to be subject to periodic reviews.
 * Review reports to be publicly available.
 * Surveillance programs to be decommissioned where abuse is identified or objectives are not met.
 * Undisclosed surveillance in public or private places to be undertaken only with judicial approval and oversight.
 * Establish expert panel to review the adequacy of laws and legal protections applying to the collection, use and storage of biometric data.
 * Remove body scanners from Australian airports.

Improve equality and transparency in the legal system

 * Strengthen shield laws for journalists in the court system.
 * No compulsion for journalists to reveal sources in court.
 * Narrow exceptions to include cases where courts determine that a public interest of greater importance than journalistic freedom is served.
 * Protections for sources to also cover confidentiality of communications and information received from sources.
 * Extend court-related shield laws to also cover public inquiries.
 * Narrow scope of subpoenas public inquiries can impose, and require a high standard of relevance.
 * Restrict use of suppression orders in criminal trials.
 * Suppression orders to be limited to protecting national security and the identity of victims, witnesses, or persons under physical threat.
 * Ban any use of suppression orders to prevent discussion of other suppression orders.
 * Ensure no legal standing is extended to parallel arbitration, dispute resolution or other legal practices and systems.

Enshrine freedom over the body in law

 * Ensure all persons have full and free access to their personal medical records.
 * Ensure all persons have the right to issue binding health directives to apply in the event of subsequent mental disability.
 * Enact a law legalising euthanasia and decriminalising assisted suicide subject to:
 * An application process and seven day cooling-off period.
 * A requirement that patients be:
 * Over 18 and mentally competent, and
 * Supported by three doctors, including:
 * A consultant/senior physician in a relevant field of expertise to confirm terminal illness, and
 * A psychiatrist to certify that the patient is not affected by treatable depression.

Remove existing laws which unduly restrict privacy, speech, expression and access to information

 * Repeal section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
 * Cases of intimidation and harassment to be handled through preexisting common law protections.
 * Repeal anti-sedition clauses (schedule 7) from 2005 Anti-Terrorism Act.
 * Repeal the Intelligence Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2011
 * Abolish residual blasphemy laws.
 * Oppose state laws which grant governments the unilateral power to restrict freedom of assembly for specific organisations.
 * Repeal the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment (Terrorist Material) Bill 2007.
 * Repeal the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment Bill (No. 2) 1999/2001.