Liberty Victoria, officially the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties (VCCL) and formerly Australian Council for Civil Liberties (ACCL), is a civil liberties group based in

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...

History

The Australian Council for Civil Liberties (ACCL) was established in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

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 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 denier Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: * ...

s 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 Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...

and

minority rights Minority rights are the normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or gender and sexual minorities, and also the collective rights accorded to any minority group. Civil-rights movements ...

. The new president was senior barrister

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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 schools, raising

ethical Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...

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 In late August 2001, the Howard Government of Australia refused permission for the Norwegian freighter MV ''Tampa'', carrying 433 rescued refugees (predominantly Hazaras of Afghanistan from a distressed fishing vessel in international water ...

, the "terror laws", and the extension of police powers, partly a result of politicians' scaremongering

law and order In modern politics, law and order is the approach focusing on harsher enforcement and penalties as ways to reduce crime. Penalties for perpetrators of disorder may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws a ...

campaigns,

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

and Julian Assange. There was another organisational overhaul in 2010. Liberty Victoria has always been supported by the

Victorian Bar The Victorian Bar is the bar association of the Australian State of Victoria. The current President of the Bar is Roisin Annesley KC. Its members are barristers registered to practice in Victoria. On 30 June 2020, there were 2,179 counsels ...

, and the position of president has often been held by retired Federal Court of Australia judges and lawyers, who have included

Julian Burnside Julian William Kennedy Burnside (born 9 June 1949) is an Australian barrister, human rights and refugee advocate, and author. He practises principally in commercial litigation, trade practices and administrative law. He is known for his staunch ...

, 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 Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g ...

is president of Liberty Victoria.

Mission and functions

Liberty Victoria aims to defend: individuals and organisations' rights to

free 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 recog ...

; freedom of the press;

freedom of assembly Freedom of peaceful assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of people to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared ide ...

; 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 The public interest is "the welfare or well-being of the general public" and society. Overview Economist Lok Sang Ho in his ''Public Policy and the Public Interest'' argues that the public interest must be assessed impartially and, therefor ...

Funding

Principal funding for the organisation comes from the awards dinners, and the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 Januar ...

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 Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

throughout Australia". The awards are named after the 18th century French writer and philosopher known as

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...

, known for advocating freedom of speech 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 The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is a conservative non-profit free market public policy think tankAbout the IPA
...

, and an opinion piece in ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

''.

Voltaire Human Rights Award recipients

* 2012: David Marr, journalist * 2013:

Arnold Zable Arnold Zable (born 1947) is an Australian writer, novelist, storyteller and human rights advocate. His books include the memoir ''Jewels and Ashes'', three novels: ''Café Scheherazade'', ''Scraps of Heaven'', and ''Sea of Many Returns'', two co ...

, writer and refugee advocate * 2014: Yu Shu Lipski, interpreter and

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

* 2015:

Peter Greste Peter Greste ( lv, Pēteris Greste; born 1 December 1965) is an Australian journalist and correspondent, who holds dual citizenship of Australia and Latvia. He has worked as a correspondent for Reuters, CNN and the BBC, predominantly in the Mi ...

, 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 Engl ...

, ''

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 Waleed Aly (born 15 August 1978) is an Australian journalist, academic, and lawyer. Aly is a lecturer in politics at Monash University working in their Global Terrorism Research Centre, and a co-host of Network Ten's news and current affairs ...

, 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 Nati ...

* 2018:

Magda Szubanski Magdalene Mary Therese Szubanski ( ; born 12 April 1961) is an Australian comedy actress, author, singer and LGBT rights advocate. She performed in ''Fast Forward'', '' Kath & Kim'' as Sharon Strzelecki and in the films ''Babe'' (1995) and ' ...

, 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 Debbie Kilroy (born 1961), née Deborah Harding, is an Australian human rights activist and prison reformer. She is known for having founded Sisters Inside, an independent community organisation based in Queensland, Australia, that advocates f ...

, prison reformer and founder of Sisters Inside * 2020:

Dylan Alcott Dylan Martin Alcott, (born 4 December 1990) is an Australian former wheelchair tennis player, former wheelchair basketball player, radio host and motivational speaker. Alcott was a member of the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball t ...

, 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''), advocate for increasing the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 and improving education for

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

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 t ...

and Witness J, joint award * 2021: accepted by

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and Mostafar Azimitibar

Notable activities

In January 2021 Liberty Victoria opposed border closures in Australia in response to the

. It also objected after

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

briefly included a number of philanthropic organisations in its sweeping ban of Australian-based publishers, in response to the

Morrison government The Morrison government was the federal executive government of Australia, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison of the Liberal Party of Australia, between 2018 and 2022. The Morrison government commenced on 24 August 2018, when it was sworn ...

'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