Our position is that the protection of political speech, which is in fact fundamental to any possibility of social advancement, requires that any restraints in it be extremely narrow
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“Restrictions on political expenditure are plainly restrictions on freedom of speech. However, restrictions on electoral expenditure are akin to the rules of debate in a meeting which restrict the length of speeches and provide for rights of reply. This feature of expenditure caps makes them more acceptable than donation bans or caps.”
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“There have been panics about the effect of technology on children since antiquity, extending to recent examples such as radio, television and comic books. We should not be taking such extreme action in response to this one”
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We cannot permit a system to stand which allows people to be sent to jail for years for exposing killings and other gross violations of human rights.
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We begin by acknowledging that a physical assault or threat of such in relation to an individual does not give rise to any issue of freedom of speech, as we will come back to in relation to proposed section 80.2 BB. Threats are not in any proper sense part of the communication of information or opinion which is protected by freedom of speech.
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“The effect of this legislation is to make ACMA the ultimate arbiter of what is information and what is not.”
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“These laws have clearly been rushed and should be withdrawn until there is further and more substantial consultation” says President Michael Cope
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Notwithstanding our submission that doxing offences in the form contained in the Bill should not be introduced, we submit that; if it were to be introduced, doxxing should be an offence only to the extent it can be equated to harassment or stalking as the unacceptable behavior and consequences are similar.
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It is legitimate for the government to promote our personal safety by restricting information about how to make your own nerve gas but not legitimate for it to promote our safety by stopping political agitation which could, if unchecked, lead to widespread social conflict
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. Why then has the police service deployed the resources of a squad specially prepared and trained to meet serious violence in this case? Many members of the public might well conclude from this that these individuals were engaged in terrorism, when plainly they were not
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There are new and draconian powers of warrantless stop and search once a person is the subject of a Firearms Protection Order
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The Internet should not be regulated as a broadcast medium and yet that is what the Online Safety Act does.
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It is our position that in order to ensure that Local Councils in the State properly comply with their obligations in this regard, section 5 (4) of the Peaceful Assembly Act ought to be repealed. That way, local authorities in this State would become subject to the same notification and Court review process as the police are.
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“The inability of government to act as arbiter in its own cause means that freedom of speech includes the right to make false claims about social and political matters. In order to sustain uninhibited political discourse, the state cannot prevent resort to exaggeration or offence or even to false statements”, says Mr Cope
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The government's role as an intellectual arbiter of the truth in social and political debate must be constricted, if not completely denied. This is based on a deep skepticism about the good faith of those controlling the government. That skepticism flows from the fact that decisions about what is true or false, when made by those in power, are bound up with political perspectives of those in power. In that regard the government is not impartial when it comes to contested disputes about the facts underlying political life. This is not meant to be some conspiracy theory. It derives from the fact that in the words of Lord Acton “All power tends to corrupt.”
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This legislation was introduced in 2004 at the peak of concerns about terrorism. Since then, we have learned that the law inappropriately prioritizes the secrecy of national security information over the administration of justice
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We remain of the view that you cannot end racism and other pernicious ideas by censorship and policing. What needs to be done is to focus on addressing the root causes of why some people are attracted to such ideologies in the first place, including social isolation, growing economic insecurity and mistrust in government and the media.
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“The QCCL looks forward to the review recommending changes to the current whistleblower laws that significantly improve the protection for those who breach government secrecy in the public interest” says Mr Cope
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Restrictions on electoral expenditure are akin to the rules of debate in a meeting which restricts the length of speeches and provide for rights of reply. In the context of political speech, the restrictions are essential to fairness, in that the arms race between various political players is continuously increasing the cost of elections, which results in an increasing number of people being excluded from the political process. Capping expenditure would also help to create closer financial equality between candidates at elections
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In our view in a noisy environment like a modern city, effective communication must involve speakers being able to amplify their voices within clear limits that respect the rights of other users of the space.
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