Deepening Lockdown Divisions, Pending COVID Deaths and the Pandemic Election
“If not at 70 percent and 80 percent, then when?” Scott Morrison rhetorically asked Australians at a press conference on Monday. The PM was referring to the percentage of the adult population to be fully vaxxed that will warrant those...
Kumanjayi Walker Murder Trial Stayed as High Court Considers “Good Faith” Defence
NT police constable Zachary Rolfe entered the family home of Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu on 9 November 2019, in an attempt to arrest the 19-year-old Warlpiri man over having breached the conditions of a suspended sentence. Despite the local police...
As They Go Before a Sympathetic Judiciary, Climate Rebels Push for Prison Time
The position of Extinction Rebellion has been clear since the global environmental movement hit the international stage, when it occupied large sections of London in April 2019. XR advocates taking nonviolent civil disobedience - the breaking of the law -...
Unfolding Catastrophe: Journalist John Stapleton on the Government’s COVID Response
Tensions are high in the Sydney region as the population looks towards its tenth week in lockdown, without any clear understanding of when it will be coming out of the home confinement it’s enduring as cases of COVID-19 continue to...
As Deaths Rise, Perth Rough Sleepers Demand Housing: An Interview With NSPTRP’s Megan Krakouer
A group of Perth rough sleepers staged a rally on 14 August, shutting down a major CBD intersection. Those gathered were calling on the McGowan government to do something about upholding their human rights, especially that to adequate housing. Homelessness...
NSW Police Force Flexes Its Muscle Against Anti-Lockdown Protesters
The poster for the 21 August Nationwide Rally for Freedom, Peace and Human Rights - otherwise known as the anti-lockdown march - had been doing the rounds of social media for a number of weeks. And it stated that the...
Rather Than Enforce, Employers Should Encourage Facilitate Uptake, Says ACTU’s Sally McManus
As the push for greater COVID-19 vaccination levels grows as the outbreak of the Delta variant of the virus continues to spike, the debate around workplace vaccination mandates is starting to reach fever pitch. Whilst the federal government made it...
“Australia Has a Very Particular Obligation” to Take In Afghan Refugees
As the Taliban swept back into Kabul last Sunday to consolidate its control over Afghanistan, questions are being raised as to how the Australian government is going to meet its obligations to those who’ve fled, are fleeing and will be...
Fears Raised as COVID Policing Deployed to Regional First Nations Communities
As the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in western NSW on 11 August, the primary concern was that the highly contagious Delta variant would commence spreading through local First Nations communities that have been identified as “vulnerable” since the...
“We Can’t Police Our Way Out of a Pandemic”: Shoebridge on Intensifying COVID Policing
The NSW Parliament Public Accountability Committee held its first hearing this year into the NSW Government’s Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic inquiry on 10 August. The meeting was confrontational as NSW health minister Brad Hazzard repeatedly blocked questions that committee...
