The Doctrine of Discovery: The Church Legalised the European Colonial Project
UK Captain James Cook arrived on the east coast of the continent these days referred to as Australia in August 1770, and he claimed the island in the name of King George III, on the basis that it was terra nullius: “that...
NZ and US Pass Laws to Reduce Smoking Harms, While Australia Makes it Harder to Quit
The NZ government launched its Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan on 9 December. A decade in the making, the policy proposes to see less than 5 percent of the population smoking in four years’ time, within a country that sees a...
Have Yourself a Very Perrottet Christmas
As Dominic Perrottet took over the reins of the NSW Liberal Nationals government on 5 October, it was understood that the new premier was going to shift the decade-long conservative governance in this state a trifle further to the right…...
Demerge Mega-Councils: An Interview With Residents for Deamalgamation’s Andrew Chuter
The 4 December elections for Inner West Council were different to the votes held at all other 127 local government areas in NSW, as the constituents in Sydney’s inner west had an extra optional question to deliberate upon, and that was whether...
The Queen Is “Completely Anathema” to Australia: CLA’s Bill Rowlings on a Republic
A first-time visitor on arrival to Australia, might question why Queen Elizabeth II is on the back of all the coins. Truth be told, however, a lot of locals, when catching a glimpse of her head on the back, wonder...
US Votes Against UN Adopted Anti-Nazi Resolution, While Australia Abstains
The 76th session of the UN General Assembly last week adopted a resolution on “combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”. Initiated by the Russian...
Imagining Prison Abolition Is Not Difficult, Says Sisters Inside’s Debbie Kilroy
When the British arrived by boat to colonise this continent in 1788, it was all about incarceration. The First Fleet brought with it large numbers of inmates, military officers and a foreign law system with carceral punishment as an integral...
Rights Infringements Are Likely to Worsen in an Era of Mounting Crises
As the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically revealed, government responses to crises result in the winding back of citizens’ rights. And this unleashing of emergency powers, coupled with the withdrawal of freedoms, exposes the bare bones of the body politic. The...
Morrison Legislates to Enhance the Mass Deportation of Residents
Fortress Australia champion and prime minister of the nation Scott Morrison oversaw the passing of a raft of amendments to the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) in November 2014. These served to strengthen the character test set out in section 501...
How the Overturning of the US Right to Abortion Could Bode for Australia
The 1973 US Supreme Court case Roe v Wade determined that a Texas law preventing abortion unless a women’s life was in danger was unconstitutional. And this finding established a national right to abortion, which prohibits states from banning it prior to foetal...
