U4 AOS2 The People, The Parliament, and The Courts (4)

Question 1

Print petitions

Answer 1

Traditional paper petitions collected in person and signed with physical signatures.

Question 2

Digital petitions

Answer 2

E-petitions or online petitions collected online and signed using email addresses or digital signatures.

Question 3

Strengths and limitations of petitions in law-reform

Answer 3

Strengths:
Relatively simple, easy and inexpensive way for people to show their desire for a change in the law;

Once a petition has been given to a member of parliament they must present the petition in parliament; even if it is not successful in generating aw reform, the tabling of the petition can help gain the attention of other members of parliament and the media, which can then generate further community support;

Limitations:
* The minister tabling the petition may have little influence over government policy and therefore be unable to initiate legislation in response to a petition;

It can sometimes be hard to obtain a large number of signatures. Petitions with few signatures may minimize the issue or petitions from opposing views can highlight conflict of opinions;

Some people may sign a paper petition more than once, which comprises the integrity of the petition;

Question 4

Strengths and limitations of demonstrations in law reform

Answer 4

Strengths:
Demonstrations that attract large numbers of participants can attract free positive media attention, therefore parliament are more likely to consider law reform that has strong support within the community;

Demonstrations can gain support of members of parliament who want to ‘adopt a cause’ particularly one that might improve their public profile or image;

Limitations:
Unless there is media attention, protests are likely to be limited in their effectiveness at raising attention to the issue;

Without a large number of supporters demonstrations may be ineffective suggesting that few members of the community want the law to change, and this requires a great deal of organisation and time;
Demonstrations about something that cannot be changed in Australia law will be less effective;

Question 5

Strengths and limitations of using the courts in law reform

Answer 5

Strengths:
Even if a court challenge is unsuccessful, it may gain significant media coverage and help increase awareness of the possible need to change a law;

Judges are politically independent and determine cases based on the merits rather than an electoral consequences such as gaining voter support;

Limitations:
Judges are unelected and their decisions and comments may not necessarily represent the views and values of the community;

Pursuing a matter through the courts can be extremely costly with legal representation and court costs;

Question 6

Traditional media and law reform

Answer 6

Individuals and groups who seek to influence legal change can capitalize on the score of social networking, allowing them to reach people that they would not be able to by word of mouth.

Question 7

List three ways in which media can influence law-reform

Answer 7

Media exposes social issues and injustices, makes law-makers informed of community opinions and social issues, and community groups and businesses can use media to persuade voters to hold a particular opinion on a social issue.

Question 8

Strengths and limitations of media in influencing law-reform

Answer 8

Strength:
Social media has meant individuals and community/ business groups can quickly and easily gain support for an issue, rather than waiting for the mainstream media to capture the story;

Law makers themselves often monitor traditional and social media coverage to gauge or measure public opinion and public responses to recent and proposed law reform;

Limitations:
The media can sometimes oversimplify issues by portraying complex legal issues in an overtly simple way;

While the traditional media is regulated to some extent, social media is not which may mean the dissemination of unreliable ideas and facts;

Question 9

Explain an example of when media encouraged law-reform

Answer 9

Four Corner: A Bloody Business [2011]:

A Four Corner episode titled ‘A Bloody Business’ investigated the cruel treatment of cattle being exported from Australia to Indonesia. Created a large amount of public pressure to greater regulate the cattle export industry and highlighted an issue weren’t previously aware of. The government response was the introduction of stronger compliance regulations for exports.

Question 10

Describe the role of the Victorian Law Reform Commission (VLRC)

Answer 10

Established from the Victorian Law Reform Commission (VLRC) Act 2000 (Vic), obtaining its power and functions from a statute, its role is to make law reform recommendations on matters referred to it by the Attorney-General, assisting the Victorian Government in continuing to provide a fair, inclusive, and accessible legal system by investigating the need for change in Victorian laws and providing recommendations for change.

Question 11

Section 5 of the Victorian Law Reform Commission Act sets out the specific roles of the Victorian Law Reform Commission. Identify and describe them

Answer 11

Inquiry: To examine and report on any proposal or matter referred to it by the Victorian Attorney-General and make recommendations to the Attorney-General for law reform. This includes conducting research, consulting with the community and reporting on law reform projects;

Investigate: To investigate any relatively minor legal issues that the VLRC believes is of general concern within the community and report back to the Attorney-General with suggestions for law reform;

Question 12

Describe the ability of the VLCR to promote law reform

Answer 12

The VLRC is able to investigate an area of the law comprehensively and has access to experts in the area. New laws based on VLRC recommendations will be more likely to solve the social issue in question, if based on experts’ knowledge;

The VLRC does have some autonomy and can research minor legal issues without a reference from the Attorney-General;

The VLRC is independent of political parties and is able to review laws on controversial matters objectively and deliver a set of recommendations for law reform to parliament based on expert opinion and the views of those in the public who make submissions;

Question 13

Describe the limitations in the VLCR in promoting law reform

Answer 13

Investigations can be very costly. The employment of experts in the field, in addition to staff from the Commission can increase costs. Given the VLRC’s limited budget, not all law reform issues can be referred to the VLRC for these thorough investigations;

The VLRC is limited by the terms of reference, that is, they can only conduct research and suggest new laws within the areas outlined by the Attorney General, as any reform projects initiated by the VLRC itself can only be on minor issues and are a small portion of the work the VLRC does;

There is no obligation on the part of the government to enact any of the recommendations;

Question 14

What is the role of royal commissions?

Answer 14

To investigate issues through consultation with experts and the community by seeking submission and holding hearings in accordance with a ‘terms of reference’ set up by the administrative branch of government, acting on the advice of ministers. However, they are developed on an ad-hoc (as needed) basis, funded by government, who determine the nature of the inquiry.

Question 15

Where are royal commissions established?

Answer 15

Established at both the state and Commonwealth level with the power to establish a royal commission provided by a statute

At a Commonwealth level, the power to issue a royal commission is given to the Governor-General through the Royal Commissions Act 1902 (Cth);

At the Victorian level, the power to establish a royal commission is given to the Governor under the Inquiries Act 2014 (Vic);

Question 16

Describe the ability of royal commissions in law reform

Answer 16

Their coercive power provides a Royal Commission with a greater ability to determine the truth, gain an insight into the issue and review all the evidence. This provides for a greater understanding of the social or legal issue, so new laws can be enacted to most effectively resolve the issue;

Royal Commissions have the power to investigate a broad range of issues depending on the terms of reference provided by the government;

Royal Commissions are independent of parliament and more likely to remain objective and unbiased in making their recommendations;

Question 17

Describe the limitations of royal commissions in law reform

Answer 17

Royal Commissions can be time consuming due to the extensive use of experts, hearings, examination of witnesses and consulting with the community and the time taken to finalize all evidence presented and make recommendations, as such, law reform can be slow to respond to issues in society;

The government doesn’t have to follow the suggested recommendations which can mean the inquiry could be considered a waste of time and/or money however this is a relatively small weakness as the public nature of the commission and its recommendations mean it would be difficult for law-makers to ignore such recommendations without voters becoming dissatisfied;

Question 18

Name one recent example of law reform by a royal commissions

Answer 18

National Natural Disaster Arrangements The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements was established on 20 February 2020 in response to the extreme bushfire season of 2019-20 which resulted in loss of life, property and wildlife and environmental destruction. Sometimes referred to as the ‘Bushfires Royal Commission’, the Commission examined coordination, preparedness for, response to and recovery from disasters as well as improving resilience and adapting to changing climatic conditions and mitigating the impact of natural disasters. The inquiry also considered the legal framework for Commonwealth involvement in responding to national emergencies.

Question 19

One recent example of the Victorian Law Reform Commission recommending law reform

Answer 19

Improving the justice system response to sexual offences: Sexual violence is widespread in the community, as estimated there are one in five women (18%) in Australia have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15 years old, and one in twenty (5%) for men. A national study suggests that almost 8% have experienced child sexual above, creating profound effects, emotional and psychological distress, physical harm, disruption to work and life alone are just some of the impacts. The Attorney-General gave the Commission the terms of the reference asking it to look at the best ways of responding to sexual offences —including alternatives to the justice system.

Question 20

Describe the reason for the VLRC law reform

Answer 20

The justice system does not respond well to sexual violence, therefore this inquiry from the Victorian Law Reform Commission was about how to improve the justice system’s response to this serious widespread harm. Even though sexual violence is common, it is one of the most under-reported crimes, and when sexual violence is reported, police lay charges in about a quarter of cases. 10% of incidents reported to police drop out of the criminal justice system at the prosecution stage as features of our justice system make it hard for sexual offences to be proved in court, and traumatic for victim survivors to go through the process.

Question 21

Describe the result and recommendations from the VLRC

Answer 21

The Commission made 91 recommendations for reforms to the law with some of the key recommendations being that a commission for Sexual Safety should be established in Victoria, the law should be clarified so that everyone knows that ‘stealthing’ is a crime, and that Victoria needs a stronger model of ‘affirmative consent’, which requires a person to take steps to find out if there is consent, not just assume it. When the report was tabled in Parliament, the government immediately announced that it intended to implement the VLRC’s recommendations about affirmative consent and stealthing, with legislation being passed by Parliament in August 2022 to implement said recommendations.

Question 22

Describe the ability of parliament to respond to the need for law reform

Answer 22

Law-making is parliament’s primary role and therefore, when required, they are able to act quickly to initiate changes to the law

Representative government means that the members are elected by the people to best represent their views. In the Commonwealth Parliament this is established through sections 7 & 24 of the Constitution. This principle should ensure members introduce and pass laws that reflect the will of the people and in response to changing social attitudes, or risk being voted out at the next election

Parliament is the supreme law-making body and can therefore make laws whenever the need arises, creating new law, amending existing legislation

Question 23

Describe the limitation of parliament to respond to the need for law reform

Answer 23

The legislative process is very time consuming including a number of reading stages through both houses of parliament and parliamentary committees. In addition, parliament is not always sitting which further restricts their ability to pass legislation. For example, parliament may only sit 20 weeks of the year. This means parliament may be slow to respond to new issues in society

On some issues there may be conflicting views within the community. This may hinder law-making, and parliament may be concerned about voter backlash and hesitate in developing new law. This can occur on controversial matters such as marriage equality

Question 24

What where the results of the royal commission recommending law reform?

Answer 24

Many of the recommendations are focused on national coordination and will take time to address. The Tasmanian Government, however, has already started work in response to some of the recommendations that can be delivered at the state level and is doing everything it can to ensure we are as prepared as possible for natural disasters.

Question 25

What where some of the recommendations of the royal commission recommending law reform?

Answer 25

Some of the recommendations include establishment of an authoritative disaster advisory body, enhanced national preparedness and response entity, and research and evaluation into aerial firefighting through exploring the most effective aerial firefighting strategies.