QUEENSLAND’S NEW SHIELD LAWS PROTECT NO-ONE, LEAST OF ALL JOURNALISTS

In May, Queensland Parliament passed the state’s new “shield laws”, which the Government said would project journalists from being forced to divulge their sources.

Contained in the Evidence and Other Legislation Amendment Bill, however, are a number of ‘get out’ clauses, which render its so-called “protections” as tokenistic at best.

One of the biggest loopholes is that it is left to the courts to decide whether a journalist’s ‘right to privilege’, is outweighed by a ‘public interest’ right for an informant’s identity to be made known.

If it is, then the judge can overrule the “shield laws”.

No criteria or rules are given to explain how the “public interest” is determined.

It is just left up to the discretion of the judge to decide.

Another problem is that the “shield laws” don’t apply to the secretive ‘star chamber’ powers of Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC).

Given the CCC star chamber has been the main instigator of attacks and threats against journalists in Queensland over the past decade, its exemption from the laws is a massive oversight.

All of which makes it surprising that no journalist or media organisation raised any objection to the “shield laws” at the time – or has criticised them since.

Surely they realise that any journalist or whistle-blower relying on these laws when exposing the wrong doings of power, would be taking an enormous risk.

The fact is, without strong and effective shield laws, informants and whistle-blowers simply won’t be prepared to divulge vital information that the public needs to know.

Even if they did, what journalist or editor in Queensland would be game enough to publish the details?

Just how secretive Queensland has become was exposed by an ABC report in February, which began:

“There is a politician we can’t name, using a non-publication order we can’t get, in a case to suppress a report by a corruption watchdog which won’t talk about it, in a court hearing that was held with no names.”

“Welcome to Queensland.”

Says it all really.

As Julian Assange once said:

“The overwhelming majority of information is classified to protect POLITICAL security, NOT national security”.

 

NEW BILL SEEKS TO SHUT DOWN INDEPENDENT WORKERS’ UNIONS IN QUEENSLAND

Queensland’s new Industrial Relations Amendment Bill claims to address the “confusion” over whether the State’s new, independent employee associations are entitled to represent and advocate for workers or not.

Currently, the use of the term ‘union’ is not restricted by law.  That’s because Australia has ratified an international convention guaranteeing the right of every worker to form their own union.

The Palaszczuk Government is trying to get around this by saying workers are still ‘free to choose” to join an “ineligible entity” if they want to, the entity just won’t be able to represent them, that’s all.

Just more ‘gaslighting’ from the same mob who told workers they were ‘free to choose’ to be injected or not – they just wouldn’t have a job if they chose wrong.

Not only does the Bill create new barriers preventing independent employee associations from representing their members, it sets a framework for punishing them as well.

New powers are created enabling the QIRC to issue orders against “ineligible entities” and hit them with heavy fines.

If passed, the bill will end the right to ‘freedom of association’ in Queensland.

As everyone knows, thousands of workers were left devastated last year when the government’s coercive control mandates were imposed.

Told by their union reps they were ‘on their own’ if they didn’t comply, these workers had no-one and nowhere to turn to.  If it hadn’t been for Red Union and other worker groups like them, these workers would have been abandoned and silenced.

The ‘new unions’ helped workers deal with unfair dismissal and pay negotiations, provided them with professional indemnity insurance, showed them how to set up public fundraising campaigns and helped them join forces with other workers to launch court actions.

By the end of 2021, Red Union associations were attracting more than 200 members a day.

Today, these organisations boast close to 50,000 workers combined.  A number that someone has estimated represents around $12 million in lost dues to the ‘legacy unions’.

No wonder union heavies like Sally McManus have been screaming blue murder in the media about “fake unions” and lobbying ‘stakeholder’ mates in Big Government and Big Media to get them banned.

As they say in the classics – “Hell hath no fury like a UNION scorned”.