Human Rights Law Centre

The Albanese Government’s plan to target undocumented migrants for detention and deportation will only inflict further punishment on workers already vulnerable to modern slavery and exploitation, warns the Human Rights Law Centre. Among a suite of policy changes, Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke announced today that the Government will round up and detain people whose visas have expired to compel them to leave the country.

The Human Rights Law Centre welcomes today’s Supreme Court decision that the parole conditions imposed on Tasmanian grandmother Susan Neill-Fraser restricting her ability to speak publicly about her alleged wrongful conviction were unlawful. For almost two years, the conditions imposed by the Parole Board of Tasmania prevented Ms Neill-Fraser from speaking publicly about her claimed innocence and to advocate for reform in regard to on wrongful convictions.

The Human Rights Law Centre and Flat Out are calling on the Victorian Government to establish a dedicated legal service for women, trans and gender diverse people in prison to challenge human rights abuses and hold authorities accountable. The new report Dignity Behind Bars highlights a critical gap in access to justice for people in prison, with no dedicated legal service in Victoria to assist people to challenge mistreatment inside prison.

The Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government and the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion to underpin its solutions in upholding and respecting human rights. Everyone in Australia has the right to live free from discrimination, hate speech and vilification. Australia’s current framework of legal protections is too fragmented and inconsistent and leaves many marginalised groups exposed to hate.

Following a legal challenge by the Human Rights Law Centre, the Tasmanian Parole Board has today removed a parole condition which sought to prevent Tasmanian grandmother, Susan Neill-Fraser, from speaking to third parties, including media, about her claimed innocence or wrongful conviction.

Over 50,000 people are calling on the Albanese Government to put human rights protections at the heart of Australian laws, with a petition for a Human Rights Act being handed to a cross-section of Labor, Greens and independent Federal MPs and Senators at Parliament House today. The petition is organised by the Human Rights Law Centre and Amnesty International Australia as part of the Human Rights Act Campaign, which is backed by 184 organisations.

The Human Rights Law Centre condemns the Carroll Government’s Bill limiting access to open air in prison, which is a cruel attack on basic human dignity that violates fundamental rights. The Centre is calling on the Carroll Government to scrap the Corrections Amendment Bill 2026  (the “No Air in Prison Bill“), alongside a coalition of legal, human rights and First Nations groups.

The Human Rights Law Centre welcomes whistleblower David McBride being granted parole by Attorney-General Michelle Rowland, and calls on the Albanese Government to implement whistleblowing law reform. McBride is a former Army lawyer who leaked documents to the ABC which led to important public interest journalism on war crimes in Afghanistan and was sentenced to almost six years’ imprisonment. McBride was the first whistleblower to be imprisoned in recent memory in Australia.

The Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government to show national leadership on youth justice, with new data showing racist youth justice policies are failing First Nations kids. All governments across Australia must change course on dangerous and discriminatory laws hurting First Nations children, families and communities.

Whistleblower Jeannie-Marie Blake, represented by the Human Rights Law Centre, is suing the Commonwealth over mistreatment she alleges she suffered related to her participation in the Robodebt Royal Commission. Ms Blake was a frontline Services Australia employee when she blew the whistle on Robodebt when the program was first piloted. The public servant later gave important evidence to the Royal Commission.