Australia

Australia has a strong, long-standing record of advancing and protecting political rights and civil liberties. However, the country continued to face criticism in 2015 from prominent domestic and international organizations for failing to meet its obligations toward asylum seekers. Additionally, the continued expansion of antiterrorism legislation raised questions about the government's respect for fundamental freedoms.

David Andrade, Liberty's Australian correspondent contributed several excellent articles on the progress of libertarianism in Australia. Part of this progress was Andrade's Honesty (1887–1889), an anarchist periodical from Melbourne. This twelve-page monthly was published by the Cooperative Publishing Company at 85 cents per year. Liberty was its role model; Honesty's advertisement proclaimed: 'It is sufficient description of Honesty's principles to say that they are substantially the same as those championed by Liberty in America.'

When Bush visited Australia in October, Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mark Riley observed, "The basic right of freedom of speech will adopt a new interpretation during the Canberra visits this week by the US President, George Bush, and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao. Protesters will be free to speak as much as they like just as long as they can't be heard." Demonstrators were shunted to an area away from the Federal Parliament building and prohibited from using any public address system in the area.

The Castle is a tacky tract house in Melbourne, Australia, where the quirky Kerrigans live in the firm belief that they are the luckiest family in the world. ... The 'little Aussie battler' is an archetype that depicts the working man (Darryl is a tow-truck driver) who triumphs through sheer will and merit over those who consider themselves to be his superior ... a retired expert in constitutional law ... takes the Kerrigan case to the Australian Supreme Court, where he challenges the legality of the compulsory purchase under Section 5 of the Constitution and draws specific parallels to the aboriginal land-rights movement.