Miscellaneous
Emeritus Professor Gillian Triggs has been both a champion of human rights and a target of attempts to suppress them. She is the former President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, and for Fabians, needs little other introduction. Australia is increasingly abrogating its human rights obligations abroad and the fundamental freedoms of its own citizens at home. Secrecy laws cover the most extreme breaches. Surveillance and self censorship ensure that people who might act as witnesses and whistleblowers do not or cannot speak up. Organisations that might act as checks and balances are delegitimized by accusations of politicisation, and progressively defunded. New threats to human rights emerge all the time. The recently proposed Office of National Intelligence Bill will confer powers that may substantially undermine the personal privacy of ordinary citizens. Professor Triggs' will focus on the effects of this Bill and other legislative threats to our fundamental freedoms in common law and treaty obligations.