Australia needs to protect both civil liberties and national security

Australia needs to protect both civil liberties and national security

Lydia Shelly | Policing Insight

"The balance between protecting civil liberties and ensuring national security is under scrutiny in Australia, as global issues such as the threat of extremism, international conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic impact on communities nationally and locally; lawyer Lydia Shelly and Dr John Coyne of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute believe the long-term solution is a bill of rights – but there are short-term measures that could be taken in the meantime.

As the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, Australians have seen their civil liberties and their community cohesion increasingly securitised and viewed as secondary to the need to prevent violence.

Despite our efforts to promote unity and to deny the world’s divisive cultural, political and ideological conflicts fertile ground to spawn hatred in Australia, old and new divisions remain deeply rooted in our multicultural society. Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to further fracture and fragment our understanding of civil liberties and national security and how to protect them both."

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Australia needs to protect both civil liberties and national security, Lydia Shelly, Policing Insight, 2021