The freedoms inquiry presents the Abbott government with a real opportunity to wind back restrictions on civil liberties and fundamental legal rights.
Commonwealth Attorney-General George Brandis has asked the Australian Law Reform Commission to review all commonwealth legislation to "identify provisions that unreasonably encroach upon traditional rights, freedoms and privileges".
The inquiry has a wide brief. It will identify laws that restrict liberal democratic rights such as freedom of speech, religion, property rights, association and movement. As importantly, the ALRC has also been asked to identify provisions that grant legislative power to the executive, reverse the burden of proof, apply retrospectively, and undermine the right to silence.
These are areas in great need of repair. For example, forthcoming research shows there are 112 current commonwealth laws that restrict the right to silence. These provisions, and many others that limit fundamental legal rights and civil liberties, must be removed if the government is serious about increasing liberal democratic freedom.
It's doubtful the ALRC has ever been given a more important task. Expanding our liberties is a job that will ultimately fall to the parliament, but identifying the provisions that give rise to these restrictions is a critical first step.
This presents a serious test of competence for the ALRC. Its most recent foray into the public debate gives cause for concern.
Can the body that advocated a massive new restriction on free speech earlier this year in the form of a privacy tort really be trusted to advise on existing laws that restrict our freedoms? It's a valid question given the lack of a basic appreciation for the importance of liberal democratic rights within the organisation.
Even Labor recognised the significant problems with a privacy tort. As attorney-general in 2013, Mark Dreyfus acknowledged that allowing people to sue each other for breach of privacy had restricted free speech in other jurisdictions.
But in March, Australian Law Reform Commissioner Barbara McDonald doubled down and publicly advocated for the new tort.
While in opposition in 2012, Brandis attacked Labor's push for a privacy tort as part of a "gradual, Fabian-like erosion of traditional rights and freedoms in the name of political correctness".
It was an excellent observation. And the fact that the freedoms inquiry has been launched demonstrates a stark contrast of intentions between this government and its predecessor. Under the previous Gillard government, the trend was very clearly in the opposite direction — it was away from freedom rather than towards it.
This authoritarian streak was expressed in the form of several dangerous policies. Perhaps the most egregious was then attorney-general Nicola Roxon's dangerous Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012.
This extraordinary bill would have made it unlawful to offend or insult another person on the basis of their political opinion.
The bill would have presumed defendants to be guilty until they proved their innocence, and they would have to pay costs even if they were found to be innocent.
At the same time, then communications minister Senator Stephen Conroy was attempting to impose massive new government controls over the media through his media regulation proposal.
The list goes on. The proposal to force internet service providers to store data on customers' internet usage through a mandatory data retention regime, the proposal to introduce an internet filter, and other proposed laws would have placed restrictions on some of our most important human rights.
Each of these laws would be caught by the terms of reference now in the hands of the ALRC. And we're all better off that none of them became law.
But there are dozens of existing laws that do restrict these freedoms, and they must be repealed. Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act is the most prominent example. To the Abbott government's credit its exposure draft legislation represents almost a full repeal.
The freedoms inquiry represents a departure from the unrelenting willingness of previous governments to place increasing restrictions on liberal democratic rights. The ALRC inquiry is a welcome first step but it won't achieve anything without action from the government.
The Abbott government must prosecute the case for nothing less than liberal democracy — that human rights don't need to be rebalanced, they need to be restored.
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