Pauline Wright

Rex Patrick has slammed both Dennis Richardson and the government for excluding the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security from inquiries and reviews of ‘what Australia’s spies actually do’.

Australia is the only Western democracy without some form of a charter of rights at the national level. Many Australians don’t know that their human rights are not protected by the Constitution or legislation.

The Law Council of Australia has urged the federal government to move forward with the establishment of its promised Commonwealth Integrity Commission by releasing the exposure draft of the bill ‘as soon as possible’.

The revised Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Minister’s Guidelines have an inadequate amount of information on how spies assess the level of intrusiveness when it comes to surveillance, according to Law Council president Pauline Wright.

The Select Committee on COVID-19 will have broad terms of reference to allow for a thorough probe of the government’s response to the pandemic, and will present its final report on the inquiry by June 30 2022.