The CLCC planned a protest march without a permit from the university to the city on 11 July 1967, but a mass meeting of students voted to postpone this until 5 September 1967 to give time for negotiations with the Queensland Government.

[15] To avoid infiltration by politically motivated groups the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties made membership open to anyone who subscribed to the aims outlined in the draft constitution.

[11] Staines was arrested by police, locked up and charged with using an obscene expression under The Vagrants, Gaming and Other Offences Act 1931–67, as a result almost every theatre company in Brisbane attacked the existing censorship system.

[23] This was at a time of growing international opposition to South Africa's racist apartheid policies, and The Springbok's visit allowed the Queensland Premier, Bjelke-Petersen, to declare a state of emergency for a month.

[26] Current Vice-president of the QCCL at the time, Terry O'Gorman, was first exposed to these abuses of civil rights during the Springbok Tour and when Bjelke-Petersen "declared a State of Emergency to ensure the match proceeded without incident.

It was prompted by the QCCL, along with the Queensland Law Society, who demanded an inquiry after a continual stream of stories of police corruption began to surface in the media.

[28] In November 1974 two suspected 'starting price' bookmakers, Brian Leonard George Sieber and Stanley Derwent Saunders, were charged and arrested "with possession of instruments of betting."

It was alleged these two men, and many other bookmakers operating in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast, were chief sources of "corrupt payments to police" in the Licensing Branch, a subsection of the Criminal Intelligence Unit.

"The Criminal Intelligence Unit had failed to secure a prosecution in a seemingly iron-clad case-one where money was actually paid over, the vital conversations had been taped and most of the activities had been observed by members of the CIU.

Terry O'Gorman said at the National Convention on Civil Liberties, held in 1976, "the conclusions on the Southport Case cast serious doubt on the reliability and integrity of inspectors in the Queensland Police Force.

QCCL attempted to take legal action on behalf of Severin but she reluctantly dropped the charges because she did not want any more publicity in the middle of university exams so the case did not continue any further.

To ensure that shipments of Uranium oxide could continue to be transported from the Mary Kathleen mine to Brisbane and further loaded onto overseas bound vessels without disruption from demonstrators 3.

Although the State Government felt that it was doing the right thing for Queenslanders, the QCCL argued that 'it is precisely these 'mob [protesters]' who got Australia out of the war in Vietnam; who stopped relations with South Africa sport; and are now joining with and broadening the trade union opposition to Fraser's uranium policy.

'[35] Since the formation of the QCCL tens of thousands of people got involved in rallies, pickets, and abortive and secret marches for civil liberties in nearly all of Queensland's major cities.

The pedlar, however, of all this whether he emerges from the lavatory of some gilded lair, must be restrained from using the magnificent services of printing, publication and distribution to present to all of us (and there is none of us immune to these depravities), the degradation of humans taking their sex as animals.

President of the time, Matt Foley found gaps in the amended Liquor Act which forbid hotel licensees to allow drug dealers, sexual perverts, deviants and child molesters on licensed Premises, but failed to define what a 'deviant' was.

An influential member of the QCCL, Gorman stated "it was during the days as a university student and under the rule of Joh Bjelke-Petersen" that he first became aware of the need to protect civil rights.

In 2008 O'Gorman commented that "civil liberties on the streets have improved, but the battle has moved to a 'law and order auction' being played out in the media, which used to be centred around the political cycle but now appears to be a permanent fixture.

[44] This era was another turning point for civil rights in Queensland with the end of a controversial Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen's reign and the beginning of The Fitzgerald Inquiry.

The inquiry was 'sparked' by frequent media talk of corruption by police at the highest level, involving alleged "illegal gambling, prostitution, kickbacks and brown paper bags."

"Fitzgerald envisioned a model of transparency in government, just elections, and non-corrupt policing through "the elimination of graft and gratuities;the removal of cronyism, nepotism and bias in public service appointments and decisions; and a scientifically grounded criminal justice system focused on crime prevention and progressive law reform.

In 1987, during the process of the Fitzgerald Inquiry, it had become glaringly clear to the National Party that their leader, Bjelke Petersen, was a political liability and he was consequently forced to stand down as Premier on 1 December.

The report and recommendations of the Fitzgerald inquiry were released in July 1989 and exposed evidence that a "corrupt elite were running Queensland – politicians, police and businessmen who were criminally involved in a world of drugs, prostitution and covert deals."

By the time he was finished looking, the police commissioner had toppled, 30 years of National Party Government was all but over, Queensland was fundamentally altered and Fitzgerald, by giving indemnities in return for evidence, had set a new standard for commissions of inquiry.

"[47] The CJC called for the abolishment of the Police Special Branch which held files on individuals who had shown lawful opposition toward government policies, as well as many other reforms in the past.

O'Gorman argues that "the effect of section 47 of the Act is that police officers are asking themselves, is this person, by the fact of who they are or what they look like, likely to cause anxiety to others and when making this determination, issues of race, apparel, state of cleanliness and social status are likely to come into play and work against minority groups, such as Indigenous Australians.

For example, in 2010, the QCCL called for major reforms in the police complaints process after footage was released of Cameron Doomadgee, a man who died in the 2004 Palm Island death in custody.

[53] In 2010 protesters in opposition to coal-seam gas mining took to the streets of Brisbane and complained of police officers taking unauthorised photos of them and asking for their contact details.

[54] On 13 September 2010, QCCL president Michael Cope commented in The Courier-Mail on Brisbane lawyer, Alexander Stewart, who posted a YouTube video of himself smoking pages from the Bible and the Koran.

"[55] In 2012, Terry O'Gorman spoke out against Queensland Premier Campbell Newman's announcement he will be introducing jail terms for the possession of illegal firearms and trafficking weapons.