The ‘Delicate Plant’ of Free Speech Needs Water

Human Rights Committee, Communication No 1157/2003 [ Coleman ], CCPR/C/87/D/1157/2003, 10 August 2006, <http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/bb31fe728f09bc5dc12571cd0048757c> at 6 March 2007.

Criminal Code ss 80.2 and 102.3 (in Schedule to the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)); Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979 (Cth) s 34ZS.

Walters Brian , Slapping on the Writs: Defamation, Developers and Community Activism (2003).

Human Rights Committee, above n 1.

On the topic of freedom of speech in pedestrian malls, see Gelber Katharine , ‘Pedestrian Malls, Local Government and Free Speech Policy in Australia’ (2003) 22(2) Policy and Society: Journal of Public, Foreign and Global Policy 22–49.

Chesterman Michael , Freedom of Speech in Australian Law: A Delicate Plant (2000).

Human Rights Committee, Communication No 1157/2003, paras 2.1 to 2.3, Coleman v Sellars (2000) 158 FLR 269, 270. Coleman has had many similar charges and court hearings for breaching Townsville by-laws and for resisting arrest in relation to those charges. I wrote about one such hearing in the Townsville Magistrates' Court in March 2000: See Chesterman John , ‘Mr Coleman is Not Entitled to be an Agitator’ (2000) 25(4) Alternative Law Journal 191–2.

Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1997) 189 CLR 520, 560–2. See also Coleman v Sellars (2000) 158 FLR 271.

Levy v Victoria [1997] HCA 31. On the nature and extent of the implied freedom, see further: Stone Adrienne , ‘Lange, Levy and the Direction of the Freedom of Political Communication under the Australian Constitution’ (1998) 21 UNSW Law Journal 117–34; Stone , ‘Rights, Personal Rights and Freedoms: The Nature of the Freedom of Political Communication’ (2001) 25 Melbourne University Law Review 374–417.

For a case note about the appeal, see Chesterman John , ‘Sellars v Coleman: The Limits of Free Speech’ (2001) 36 Australian Journal of Political Science 373–5.

Coleman v Sellars (2000) 158 FLR 269, at 273, 277, 282; Sellars v Coleman [2001] 2 Qd R 565. See also Chesterman, above n 10.

Transcript of Proceedings, Coleman v Sellars & Anor (High Court, 26 June 2002, B14/2001) <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/hca/transcripts/2001/B14/1.html> at 10 February 2007; Human Rights Committee, above n 1, the first note.

Transcript of Proceedings, Coleman v Sellars & Anor, above n 12, ‘Appellant's Summary of Argument’, 5–6.

Transcript of Proceedings, above n 12.

In 2004 Coleman did have a victory in the High Court on a different matter. He had been found guilty of using ‘threatening, abusive, or insulting words’ in publicly labelling a policeman ‘a corrupt police officer’. But the High Court overturned that conviction on the basis that the use of the word ‘corrupt’ was not ‘insulting’ under the then existing vagrancy legislation in Queensland. See Coleman v Power [2004] HCA 39. For my note on this case see Chesterman John , ‘What ‘Right’ to Free Speech?’ (2004) 29 Alternative Law Journal 255.

Human Rights Committee, above n 1, para 7.3.

Ibid, paras 4.1, 6.2.

Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT) s 16; Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) s 15.

See, eg, Debeljak Julie , ‘Rights Protection Without Judicial Supremacy: A Review of the Canadian and British Models of Bills of Rights’ (2002) 26 Melbourne University Law Review 285–324; Debeljak , ‘The Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT): A Significant, Yet Incomplete, Step Toward the Domestic Protection and Promotion of Human Rights’ (2004) 15 Public Law Review 169–76.

Human Rights Committee, above n 1, para 7.3, appendix.

Human Rights Committee, Communication No 488/1992 [Toonen], CCPR/C/50/D/488/1992, 4 April 1994, <http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/d22a00bcd1320c9c80256724005e60d5?Opendocument> at 10 February 2007. See Gelber Katharine , ‘Treaties and Intergovernmental Relations in Australia: Political Implications of the Toonen Case’ (1999) 45 Australian Journal of Politics and History 330–46, esp 333.

See also Gelber , above n 21; Evatt Elizabeth , ‘Reflecting on the Role of International Communications in Implementing Human Rights’ (1999) 5(2) Australian Journal of Human Rights 20; Morgan Wayne , ‘Passive/aggressive: The Australian Government's Responses to Optional Protocol Communications’ (1999) Australian Journal of Human Rights 22.

Townsville Local Law 39, by-law 8 (2), see <http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/yourcouncil/local_laws.asp> at 10 February 2007.

Human Rights Committee, above n 1, para 9.

‘Man wants conviction quashed after UN committee finding’, ABC News Online, 11 September 2006 <http://abc.net.au/news/australia/qld/townsville/200609/s1738163.htm> at 10 February 2007.

Chesterman , above n 6.

Williams , The Case for an Australian Bill of Rights (2004); Feenan Dermot , ‘Religious Vilification Laws: Quelling Fires of Hatred?’ (2006) 31(3) Alternative Law Journal 153; Walters , above n 3.

I met Patrick Coleman when I lived in Townsville, and I put him in touch with the QC who represented him in 2002 in his application for special leave to appeal to the High Court. I also offered some preliminary advice to Coleman about his application to the Human Rights Committee after special leave to appeal to the High Court was refused.