Thursday 28th of March 2024

a bucketful for the pitiful shameful degrading bullies parading as a mascarade of the australian government...

 

apologies...

The head of Australia's Human Rights Commission, Professor Gillian Triggs, has shown defiance in the face of the latest attack on her by the Federal Government, standing by her criticisms of new laws that she says limit international diplomacy and harm democracy and liberties.

Yesterday, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and Attorney-General George Brandis accused Professor Triggs of linking the execution of the Bali Nine drug smugglers with Australia's border protection policies, saying comments she made earlier this week were "foolish" and demanding an apology.

But, before an audience of human rights lawyers in Melbourne last night, Professor Triggs did not back away from her comments.

Instead she set her sights on laws which she says go too far, harming democracy and liberties.

Professor Triggs told the forum a "growing threat to democracy" was the diminishing of human rights and expansion of "discretionary, often non-compellable ministerial powers".

"Respective governments have been remarkably successful in persuading parliaments to pass laws that are contrary, even explicitly contrary, to common law rights and to the international human rights regime to which Australia is a party," she said.

She said counterterrorism laws were passed with unseemly haste and plans to strip citizenship from foreign fighters were an example of executive power which had gone too far.

"This proposal strikes at the heart of Australia as a largely migrant country," she said.

"Not only may this idea violate Australia's international obligation not to render a person stateless, but also the detention may be at the discretion of a minister without recourse to judicial processes."

Professor Triggs said "freedom of movement" was also threatened by the same act.

The human rights chief also criticised data retention laws, a recent bill giving detention centre guards powers of enforcement and the indefinite detention of some asylum seekers.

The speech was a far cry from what Mr Dutton had been demanding only hours earlier.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-06/human-rights-chief-stands-firm-on-criticisms-of-new-laws/6526798

 

when democracy is loosing traction due to bad decrees...

 

For, over the last decade, particularly since the attack in 2001 on the twin towers in America, Australian parliaments have passed scores of laws that infringe our democratic freedoms of speech, association and movement, the right to a fair trial and the prohibition on arbitrary detention.

“These new laws undermine a healthy, robust democracy, especially if they grant discretionary powers to the executive government that are not subject to judicial scrutiny.”

Triggs said the expansion of ministerial powers represented a “growing threat to democracy” and she cited numerous examples of executive overreach including:

  • Powers to detain indefinitely various classes of individuals, including refugees and asylum seekers, those with infectious diseases, those subject to mandatory admission to drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities and the mentally ill;
  • The holding of four Indigenous men with intellectual and cognitive disabilities for years in a maximum security prison in the Northern Territory even though “each complainant had been found unfit to stand trial or found not guilty by reason of insanity”;
  • The indefinite detention of asylum seekers and refugees including children because of adverse security assessments “without meaningful access to legal advice or judicial review”;
  • The reduction of freedom of association from Queensland’s “anti-bikie” laws;
  • Constraints on judicial power to assess individual circumstances due to “a spate of mandatory sentencing laws”.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/06/gillian-triggs-slams-scores-of-laws-threatening-fundamental-freedoms

 

a brave but lonely voice ....

Yes Gus, absolutely disgusting ....

 Jillian Triggs, has been characterised as “outspoken” & “defiant” for courageously speaking-out against the expansion of discretionary ministerial powers.

The simple truth is that Ms Triggs has been rendered a brave but lonely voice by the cowardly failure of those in so-called “leadership” positions in the judiciary, the church, academia, the media, civil liberties groups & business to speak-out against the systemic attack on our democratic freedoms by both major political parties.

And what happened to the rest of us?

Cheers,

John.


yes john, we need to make sure she is supported...

The minister for hitting the refugees and other annoying traits is crying on Andrew Bolt's lap...

The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has urged Professor Gillian Triggs to consider resigning as president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, in the latest outbreak of hostilities over asylum-seeker policies and the rule of law.

Triggs spoke out last week about the regional “consequences” of the government’s policy of turning back asylum-seeker boats and called on MPs to uphold the rule of lawas they prepared to debate extraordinary new ministerial powers to revoke citizenship of suspected terrorists.

Dutton sharpened his criticism of Triggs on Sunday, two days after he accused her of drawing an inappropriate link between Australia’s immigration policy and Indonesia’s execution of two members of the Bali Nine drug smuggling group.

When asked by the conservative commentator Andrew Bolt whether he would like to see Triggs gone from her position as commission president, Dutton said: “Well, when you reduce the position to basically that of a political advocate, I think it is very difficult to continue on, and these are issues for Professor Triggs to contemplate.”

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/07/peter-dutton-says-gillian-triggs-should-consider-resigning-as-human-rights-chief

 

a pissy support from labor:

Gillian Triggs has the right to slam politicians for over-reaching ministerial power, but Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen says they don’t have to agree with her.

The human rights commissioner said in a speech on Friday night that ministers increasingly used their powers without legal oversight.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/06/gillian-triggs-has-the-right-to-criticise-politicians-use-of-power-says-labor

Triggs must be doing something right

 


Triggs must be doing something right
Australians should thank Gillian Triggs for her stand on how our human rights are being diminished by the Abbott government ("Ministerial powers a growing threat to democracy", June 6-7).  She seems to one of the few who are courageous enough to take the government on and expose them on how our rights are being whittled away. You would think Bill Shorten and the Labor Party would be hammering that home in the Parliament. Instead they are in lock step with Tony Abbott.  

Triggs must be doing something right if she has got under the skin of Abbott, Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton and George Brandis.  We need more people like Triggs, not less, in Australia to keep the government honest.

Robert Pallister Punchbowl 

 

 

Michael Gordon writes that head of the Human Rights Commission Professor Gillian Triggs "was savaged by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton" over comments she made about moves to expand discretionary ministerial powers, and also the need for the government "to work diplomatically with Indonesia to reach agreements on ending the death penalty in the region".

Dutton was fulsome in his criticism of Triggs and called on her to make a public apology. Unwisely he based his criticism upon inaccurate reporting in The Australian newspaper without checking the facts. Might we now expect him to be as fulsome in apologising to Triggs?

Paul Parramore Sawtell

 

 

So, the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, has been characterised as "outspoken" and "defiant" for courageously speaking out against the expansion of discretionary ministerial powers. The simple truth is that Triggs has been rendered a brave but lonely voice by the cowardly failure of those in so-called "leadership" positions in the judiciary, the church, academia, the media, civil liberties groups and business to speak out against the systemic attack on our democratic freedoms by both major political parties. And what happened to the rest of us?

John Richardson Wallagoot

 

 

It is absolutely terrifying that this government is contemplating bestowing powers that provide for the removal of someone's citizenship to a minister who is so grossly incompetent that he relies upon the misrepresentations of the Murdoch media to base his decisions.

Timothy Ashton Darlinghurst

 

read more http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-letters/triggs-must-be-doing-something-right-20150607-ghign7.html

 

incompetent and negligent...

The Greens have called Immigration Minister Peter Dutton "incompetent" and say he was negligent in his handling of spying allegations made against a government contractor.

The Immigration Department yesterday confirmed a security contractor had been disciplined for conducting unauthorised surveillance of Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young on Nauru.

The Wilson Security supervisor was disciplined for tailing Senator Hanson-Young's car after she left Australia's immigration detention facilities on the pacific island.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the evidence contradicts Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, who dismissed the spying claims last week and said Senator Hanson-Young had a "pretty shabby track record when it comes to facts".

"We now firstly need an apology from Minister Dutton for his outrageous and unjustified response and we need this issue to be thoroughly investigated," Senator Di Natale said.

"We have got an Immigration Minister who has shown himself not just to be incompetent, but also negligent in his responsibilities."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-10/greens-demand-apology-from-immigration-minister-over-spying/6535342

turnshitt gov ideologically opposed to human rights...

 

Gillian Triggs has accused the Australian government of being “ideologically opposed to human rights”, saying Australia’s human rights are “regressing on almost every front”.

Triggs has used the last week of her tenure as human rights commissioner to say human rights in Australia were going backwards for almost all relevant groups. “Whether it’s women, Indigenous, homeless and most of course asylum seekers and refugees,” she told ABC Radio National on Wednesday morning.

Triggs said the Coalition government held some responsibility for the regression. “I think it’s partly because we have a government that is ideologically opposed to human rights,” she said.

 

“Mr Abbott, when he campaigned for government, one of those campaign platforms was the elimination of the Australian Human Rights Commission. So in that sense it was part of the platform and it’s been maintained pretty well ever since.”

Triggs also blamed the slipping of human rights in Australia on the lack of a legal protection of rights – a bill of rights – that would ensure governments could not act counter to human rights.

“Unlike almost every other comparable country Australia has no bill of rights against which government policies can be benchmarked,” Triggs said.

“As there is no bill of rights, the courts are very very hamstrung in standing up for human rights.”

She said the fear of terrorism was being exploited to centralise government power “giving ministers really unprecedented power without the supervision of the court.”

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jul/26/gillian-triggs-au...

 

 

meanwhile in "democratic" saudi arabia, friend of the USA...

Amnesty International has condemned a court decision which they say could see 14 men, including a student due to study in the US, beheaded for taking part in anti-government protests in Saudi Arabia.

READ MORE: When in Riyadh: Trump & Tillerson awkwardly join in Saudi sword dance (VIDEOS)

Mujtaba al-Suweyket and 13 other men have reportedly had their death sentences upheld by the Saudi Arabian Supreme Court for their part in demonstrations that took place between 2011 and 2012.

The protests were part of the Arab Spring upheaval and according to Amnesty International the men were found guilty in July 2016 on charges of “armed rebellion against the ruler,” “inciting chaos,” “using Molotov cocktail bombs,” and “shooting at security personnel.”

The men have now had their sentences upheld and could be executed if their death warrants are approved by the state.

“By confirming these sentences Saudi Arabia’s authorities have displayed their ruthless commitment to the use of the death penalty as a weapon to crush dissent and neutralize political opponents,” said Samah Hadid, of Amnesty International’s Middle East group.

King Salman’s signature is now all that stands between them and their execution. He must immediately quash these campaigns which are a result of a sham court proceedings that brazenly flout international fair trial standards.”

Al-Suweyket was just 17 at the time of his arrest and had been accepted as a student by Western Michigan University prior to his detention.

Earlier this year, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) called for US President Donald Trump to use his influence to secure a reprieve for the student.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/397506-saudi-arabia-behead-protesters-amnesty/