“Vote No to Referendum”, Say Grassroots First Nations, “We Deserve More than a Voice”
This 26 January marked 235 years since the British ships first docked at Kamay-Botany Bay with the intent of invading the continent today referred to as Australia, under the pretext of the doctrine of terra nullius, when clearly there were...
Enshrine Protest in Law as Our Future Depends on It: Shoebridge on Protecting the Right
Human Rights Watch began the year with the release of its World Report 2023, in which it critiqued the disproportionate punishment the NSW anti-protest regime, which was established last April, results in for those who partake in demonstrating “without permission”. Indeed, 2022...
Rejecting Your Strawman: Dr Kaz Ross on the Rising Sovereign Citizen Movement
About a fortnight ago, footage of a young woman from Victoria being pulled over by NSW police was doing the rounds online, due to the driver’s strange responses to officers’ questioning. When the police officer standing at the driver’s window asked...
The Belmarsh Tribunal: “In Short, Free Julian Assange, Without Further Unconscionable Delay.”
The Belmarsh Tribunal sat for the fourth time last Friday, 20 January, in Washington DC to discuss the global crackdown by state actors against journalists, sources and their publishers, with a focus on the extralegal attempt to extradite Julian Assange to...
Australia Again Misses Deadline on OPCAT, the UN Rights Treaty to Protect Detainees
Australia has again missed its deadline for implementing an international anti-torture protocol that the nation agreed to comply with in December 2017. The deadline, last Friday, 20 January 2023, was actually the third such deadline the country has missed in...
US Escalates Its Militarisation of Australia, Under Albanese
Foreign minister Penny Wong’s end of year trip to Beijing to meet with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi was hailed as an indication that the recently fraught relationship between the two nations was stabilising, especially in terms of the potential...
Australian Police Continue to Apply Prone Restraint Despite Multiple Deaths
The prone position involves a person lying face down on the ground. Police and corrections officers the world over apply the prone restraint when they’re trying to subdue an individual. And the use of this position during such episodes, does result...
In an Age of Unprecedented Polycrisis, “Taxing the Rich is Vital”, Declares Oxfam
Humanity is living through an unprecedented moment of multiple crises: basic goods and energy prices are rising, extreme poverty is growing for the first time in 25 years, millions are still reeling from the impact of the pandemic and climate...
Pokies Out of NSW Pubs and Clubs, Says Greens MLC Faehrmann, as Labor Trial Set to Fail
NSW Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann launched her party’s plan to phase out pokies from pubs and clubs on 5 December. And when the Greens gambling harm reduction spokesperson did, she made the announcement from the Petersham Bowling Club, which ditched...
No Crime, No Time: ISJA’s Dave Pollock on Reforming Victoria’s Harsh Bail Regime
The impacts of harsh bail laws have been increasingly raised over recent years, as state governments have tightened them. Indeed, last year saw NSW impose an unworkable prohibition on granting bail to those convicted, prior to their “likely” sentencing, unless exceptional circumstances...
