Liberty Victoria, officially the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties (VCCL) and formerly Australian Council for Civil Liberties (ACCL), is a

civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...

group based in Victoria, Australia.

History

The Australian Council for Civil Liberties (ACCL) was established in Melbourne in 1936. Foundation member Brian Fitzpatrick led the organisation as general secretary until his death in 1965. In 1966,

John Tuson Bennett John Tuson Bennett (12 November 1937 – 22 July 2013) was a solicitor in Victoria, Australia. He was one of Australia's longest and most active Holocaust deniers, active in the Holocaust denial movement from the late 1970s. He formed the Austra ...

and

Beatrice Faust Beatrice Eileen Faust (19 February 1939 – 30 October 2019) was an Australian author and women's activist. In 1966 she was president of the Victorian Abortion Law Repeal Association. She was also a co-founder of the Women's Electoral Lobby i ...

launched the Victorian Council of Civil Liberties (VCCL). and Bennett served as its secretary until being expelled from the group in 1980. The new body had no ties with former council members, and no political and religious affiliations, unlike the ACCL, which was affiliated to the Labor Party. The VCCL focused largely on police matters, in particular their actions in response to

protests against the Vietnam War Protests against the Vietnam War took place in the 1960s and 1970s. The protests were part of a movement in opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. The majority of the protests were in the United States, but some took place ar ...

around 1970. Disagreements arose between conservative and radical members, and Bennett was expelled from the Labor Party, and in May 1980 the VCCL elected a new committee, without Bennett. Conflict ensued, with Bennett refusing to hand over control of the finances or membership list, and the matter went to court. While Bennett claimed to represent the VCCL, but in the same year formed a new body, the

Australian Civil Liberties Union John Tuson Bennett (12 November 1937 – 22 July 2013) was a solicitor in Victoria, Australia. He was one of Australia's longest and most active Holocaust deniers, active in the Holocaust denial movement from the late 1970s. He formed the Austra ...

(ACLU), and became known for being one of the leading Holocaust deniers in Australia. The council had held two fund-raising dinners in 1983 and 1984, to pay off debts incurred by legal action and to attract new members, and became an incorporated body in 1984. It underwent an organisational restructure, creating sub-committees focusing on policies such as criminal justice and minority rights. The new president was senior barrister

Ron Castan Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in '' Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...

QC. Gareth Evans, later

Attorney General of Australia The Attorney-GeneralThe title is officially "Attorney-General". For the purposes of distinguishing the office from other attorneys-general, and in accordance with usual practice in the United Kingdom and other common law jurisdictions, the Aust ...

, served as vice-president for several years. In 1984 the council supported a Human Rights Bill, which did not get passed, and in 1985 opposed the introduction of a

national identity card National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, later called the

Australia Card The Australia Card was a proposal for a national identification card for Australian citizens and resident foreigners. The proposal was made in 1985, and abandoned in 1987. History The idea for the card was raised at the national Tax Summit in 1 ...

. It developed educational materials for

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

s, raising ethical questions and human rights issues, and prepared written submissions to government on topics such as police powers, prisons, health and industrial affairs, as well as discussing such issues on radio. There were organisational changes in 1990 and again in 1998, with a new constitution. In 1995, the Council was rebranded as Liberty Victoria, for media appeal and to put previous internal divisions behind them. In the 21st century came Australia's treatment of asylum seekers, the Tampa affair, the "terror laws", and the extension of police powers, partly a result of politicians' scaremongering law and order campaigns, WikiLeaks and

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army inte ...

. There was another organisational overhaul in 2010. Liberty Victoria has always been supported by the Victorian Bar, and the position of president has often been held by retired

Federal Court of Australia The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indic ...

judges and lawyers, who have included Julian Burnside, Chris Maxwell and

Ron Merkel Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in ''Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...

. , Julia Kretzenbacher is president of Liberty Victoria.

Mission and functions

Liberty Victoria aims to defend: individuals and organisations' rights to free speech;

freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic News media, media, especially publication, published materials, should be conside ...

; freedom of assembly; and freedom from racial, religious or political discrimination. The organisation issues public statements and media releases, and is called upon by media and federal and state governments to debate or comment on a range of matters of public interest.

Funding

Principal funding for the organisation comes from the awards dinners, and the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia caused the 2020 live awards to be cancelled, which almost led to the demise of the organisation. However, sponsors donated enough to keep it afloat.

Voltaire Awards

Liberty Victoria awards its Voltaire Human Rights Awards (Voltaire Awards) to "celebrate free speech and support Liberty Victoria's continued work to defend and extend civil liberties and human rights throughout Australia". The awards are named after the 18th century French writer and philosopher known as Voltaire, known for advocating

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

and civil liberties. Apart from the main Voltaire Human Rights Award, there are two additional awards, the Young Voltaire Human Rights Award (since 2017) and the Empty Chair Human Rights Award (since 2016). The choice of recipients has attracted criticism from radio presenter Neil Mitchell, Morgan Begg of the Institute of Public Affairs, and an opinion piece in '' The Australian''.

Voltaire Human Rights Award recipients

* 2012: David Marr, journalist * 2013: Arnold Zable, writer and refugee advocate * 2014: Yu Shu Lipski, interpreter and whistleblower * 2015: Peter Greste, Baher Mohamed and

Mohamed Fahmy Mohamed Fadel Fahmy ( ar, محمد فاضل فهمي ; born April 27, 1974) is an Egyptian-born Canadian journalist, war correspondent and author. He has worked extensively in the Middle East, North Africa, for CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera Engli ...

, ''

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

'' journalists detained in Egypt from 2013 to 2015 * 2016: Waleed Aly, academic, author, radio and TV presenter * 2017:

Gillian Triggs Gillian Doreen Triggs (born 30 October 1945) is an Australian academic specialising in public international law. In 2019, she was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Natio ...

* 2018: Magda Szubanski, actor and advocate for

same sex marriage in Australia Same-sex marriage in Australia has been legal since 9 December 2017. Legislation to allow same-sex marriage, the ''Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017'', passed the Australian Parliament on 7 December 2017 and receiv ...

* 2019: Debbie Kilroy, prison reformer and founder of Sisters Inside * 2020: Dylan Alcott, disability advocate * 2021: the children of Tanya Day, who died in custody

Young Voltaire Human Rights Award recipients

* 2018:

Yassmin Abdel-Magied Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese–Australian media presenter and writer, who had an early career as a mechanical engineer. She was named Young Queenslander of the Year in 2010 and Queensland Australian of the Year in 2015 for her engagement ...

* 2020: Dujuan Hoosan (who featured in the documentary film ''

In My Blood It Runs Maya Newell is an Australian filmmaker, known for the feature-length documentaries ''Gayby Baby'' (2015) and ''In My Blood It Runs'' (2019). She works at Closer Productions in Adelaide, South Australia. Newell had intended to study international ...

''), advocate for increasing the

age of criminal responsibility The age of criminal responsibility is the age below which a child is deemed incapable of having committed a criminal offence. In legal terms, it is referred to as a defence/defense of infancy, which is a form of defense known as an excuse so tha ...

from 10 to 14 and improving education for Indigenous Australian children * 2021: Mohamed Semra

Empty Chair Human Rights Award

* 2020:

Bernard Collaery Bernard Joseph Edward Collaery (born 12 October 1944) is an Australian barrister, lawyer and former politician. Collaery was a member of the Australian Capital Territory's first Legislative Assembly for the Residents Rally party, from 1989 to ...

and Witness J, joint award * 2021: accepted by Craig Foster and Mostafar Azimitibar

Notable activities

In January 2021 Liberty Victoria opposed border closures in Australia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. It also objected after Facebook briefly included a number of philanthropic organisations in its sweeping ban of Australian-based publishers, in response to the Morrison government's proposed media bargaining laws in February 2021.

References

External links

*{{official, https://libertyvictoria.org.au/home Civil rights and liberties in Australia Political organisations based in Australia Human rights organisations based in Australia