Australia Law Reform Essay

Australian law is constantly evolving alongside her society, this process of evolving the law is more commonly known as “Law Reform”. Some of the reasons for law reform may involve the changing of social values, the introduction of new concepts of justice and finally technology. This essay will evaluate the role of law reform in addressing emerging technological issues and enforcing rights with reference to one case study.

The evolution in technology always put the law under pressure to remain current. The new technology may cause changes that may be either radical and sweeping or subtle and incremental, an example may be the invention of the petrol-powered motor vehicle changed the way people travel from place to place. Another example

may be the introduction of social networks such as Facebook can cause new problems to arise such as online stalking or harassing someone under another’s name. Both of these actions are known as the act of Cyber Bullying.

The main role of the Australian law reform commission is to review commonwealth laws relevant to the matters referred to it by the Attorney General to conduct inquiries.

This brings about harmonization of commonwealth, state and territory laws where possible. Since the introduction of modern technology like the Internet have caused both the parliamentary committees and the law reform commissions to change some laws such as The Criminal Code Act in 1995 to counter the possible threats social networks can cause. The media has also been affected from the evolution of technology. Modern media can promote law reform by simply reporting the stories of individuals who suffer discrimination, persecution or financial loss due to a poorly framed law. The government is not able to influence what is reported and how it will be reported, as it is a free and fair press. Non-government organizations (NGOs) are committees or organizations that are independent of governments, but they can work with governments where there are shared goals. With the evolution of technology, this will allow NGOs to spread their goals to the rest of the world instead of an exclusive community. Courts may also have effects over the improvement of technology, such as hardships in regards to finding the real identities of the online

predators.

If law reform were to be effective in the cyberspace it must be flexible and introduced quickly to keep up with the rapidly growing cyberspace. Some laws such as the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Act 2012 (Cth) was introduced to allow greater cooperation with other countries in investigating crimes. Some companies may keep records of conversations of employee’s. Some argue that this legislation is invading their privacy. In the case of Shane Gerada v Victoria, in 2010 Shane Gerada had influenced a 17 year old boy, Allem Halkic to commit suicide. He did this by sending threatening text messages involving vulgar language and destabilize Halkic’s mental health. Shane avoided the normal sentence of 6 months of jail as it was the very first case in regards to cyber bullying. Gerada never intended for Halkic to commit suicide so he pleaded guilty to stalking thus receiving an 18-month community service punishment. This case has now set a precedent for future cases of similar crimes. This was when Australia first witnessed its absence of specific cyber bullying legislation in this case, which introduced the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Act 2012.

In regards to the conditions of law reform in Australia, unlike the united states that have drafted legislative provisions to tackle cyber-bullying after suicide incidents, Australia is still currently undecided whether it should have specific cyber-bullying legislation.

There are related suicide cases such as that of Chanelle Rae, may justify dedicated legislative responses to cybercrime in Australia. In response to the problem at hand, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has noted that the growth of cyber bullying is related to the changing digital environment. It operates a cyber smart online helpline. Victoria’s government introduced tougher penalties for workplace and cyber bullies after the suicide of Brodie Panlock who was subject to harsh bullying in her work place. An anti-bullying legislations known as Brodie’s Law was commenced in June 2011 and made bullying a serious crime. Some may argue that there is no need for law reform as Cybercrimes can be prosecuted under other laws e.g. serious threats can constitute as assault or persistent online harassment may constitute as stalking. Law Reform in this area presents quite a number of challenges due to the rapidly changing international digital environment, and ease of online criminality. Specific legislation can possibly provide a definition of cyber-bullying, and lay out punishment and penalty for those involved in such activities, this will provide victims, parents and the police with a better

understanding of the appropriate actions and measures available to them. Ultimately Australian law will still have to improve on their pace and make changes as fast as technology is changing.