Tim Costello awarded Australian Peace Prize

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Demand a Human Rights Act for Australia

The federal government has begun a consultation to discover how Australians want their human rights protected.

Amnesty International says: "If human rights aren't formally protected, they are at risk of being eroded. In recent years we have seen how human rights are vulnerable to being undermined by government policies, such as mandatory detention of asylum seekers and our anti-terror laws."

This is our chance to call for binding legal protection of the human rights of everyone in Australia. Individuals and organisations can contribute to the consultation online at Amnesty International and GetUp.

Call for a review of our anti-terror laws

The online activism group, GetUp, is calling for a full review of Australia's anti-terror laws.

GetUp says: "History will remember the Bush-Howard era ... as one marked by draconian anti-terrorism laws that encouraged a climate of fear and did little to protect us from terrorism ... An independent review and watchdog can weed out the most abhorrent features of the system while ensuring a more robust and accountable system that keeps us safe."

You can read more about the campaign and sign the GetUp petition here.

Australians Against Internet Censorship

Among the groups concerned about the government's mandatory ISP filtering proposals are GetUp and Amnesty International. Here's your chance to show your opposition to Internet censorship. See Australian Democrats policy on censorship.

National Close the Gap Day

April 2, 2009

Put the date in your diary now. Close the Gap is Australia's largest campaign to improve Indigenous health. The campaign calls on governments to commit to closing the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation and is supported by a diverse group of organisations across Australia. Join more than 120,000 Australians who have committed to close the gap. Sign the pledge at Oxfam.

You can make a difference!

With no Australian Democrats in the senate who will strive to keep the government transparent and accountable? Who will demand legislation that protects independence and liberty? And who will stand up for the underprivileged and disenfranchised?

We will.

With your help there's much we can do, For example, we can still influence government via petitions and submissions, public forums and rallies. But until we get Australian Democrats back into parliament our strength lies in numbers.

Win dinner for two

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What can I do about climate change?

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