Racial Discrimination Act Law reform includes both the constant maintenance of the The Australian Law Reform

Commission Established in 1975 Governed by the Australian Law Reform Commission Act 1996

Role: Simplify Modernise Remove obsolete laws Eliminate defects and anachronisms Systematically develop and reform Improve access to justice Harmonise/complement state/territory laws Revise/put into legislation (codify)/consolidate the common law Independent reviewer of the law (independent of government/parliament/etc) Attorney-General directs ALRC on an area of the law Free from gov. influence/direction once it starts to review Reports findings to Attorney-General which are considered by the parliament Parliament considers whether or not to accept Must comply with international obligations eg. The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. HW: make sure that you have put in the flowchart-on top of these notes put reform of sedition laws-blue box in textbook

What conditions give rise to the need for law reform? The law reflects out social values and as our value system changes so must the law to meet our needs Failure of existing laws Toonen vs. Australia A homosexual man complained about a state law that criminalised homosexual relationships. The governments response was that the law was not being enforced, so there was no problem. Toonen pointed out that the law could be enforced at any time. Under the Vagrancy Act 1902 (NSW), persons who slept on park benches at night and who had no visible means of support could be detained overnight in police cells. This law was later repealed and replaced with a section of the Summary Offences Act 1970 (NSW) as the general public saw it as too harsh.

International laws and conventions The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC), a widely supported international agreement, was partially adopted into the Family Law Reform Act 1995. This ensured greater rights and more protection for children in our society.

We must review existing laws and recommend or introduce changes with the aim of improving justice and efficiency. New concepts of justice January 2009- calls to make smacking your child illegal Ronald Ryan was the last person to be executed in Australia. He was hanged in Victoria in 1967 for killing a prison guard while escaping custody. However, it is now uncertain whether he did commit the offense The cane has been removed from schools

Changing composition of society Australias population has increased by more than three times since the end of WWII Marriage is being deferred or is not considered necessary by many young couples Families are having fewer children Increased unemployment and calls for legislative reform of the banking section since the global financial crisis of 2008-10 White-collar crimes rate is increasing

If law reform did not take place laws would lose their relevance and could create injustice. This would result in loss of support for the legal system. New technology Growth in the use of chat rooms and cyber-bullying The Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act 2000 (Cwlth) was introduced to allow police to take DNA swabs, hair and tissue samples from suspects. This legislation overcame problems of suspects refusing to provide samples for testing. In R v. Fernando & Anor (1999), two suspects in a sexual assault case had refused to provide blood samples to police. They argued that giving a blood sample would constitute an assault. An amending Act- (the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Act (2008)) amended Section 93 of the Act clarifying the circumstances in which DNA profiles on the DNA database can be matched against each other. A further change to Section 97 has given the Attorney-General the ability to sign more complex agreements concerning DNA matching and sharing with other jurisdictions.

Changing social values and morality Society has become more tolerant of people caught with very small quantities of recreational drugs and this is reflected in legislative changes to existing laws.

Reform of Sedition Laws The federal government has accepted 25 of the 27 recommendations for reform of the law of sedition and the other two in principle. The necessary changes of the law are currently being drafted. The Commission contends that a definite line should be drawn between free speech and conduct calculated to encourage violence in a community.