Drug Decriminalisation for the ACT: An Interview With Labor MLA Michael Pettersson
Led by the Uniting Church Synod of NSW/ACT, Fair Treatment has been calling on the jurisdictions of NSW and the ACT to decriminalise drug use and personal possession since late 2018. This health-based campaign has the backing of over 60...
LECC Calls on Parliament to Review NSW Police Strip Search Protocols
The “recurrent issue” this state’s independent police watchdog found during the seven investigations into NSW police use of strip searches is that officers are failing to comply with the “legal thresholds for conducting a strip search”. Released on 15 December,...
A Violation of Civil Liberties: NSWCCL’s Elizabeth Htwe on Criminalising Drug Use
Since the drug-related deaths of two young Australians at the Sydney Defqon.1 festival in September 2018, the NSW Liberal Nationals government has understood that this state’s current approach to illicit substances isn’t working. Indeed, by the end of that music...
Morrison and the Prosperity Gospel: License to Torture Refugees and Damn the Poor
During his 2008 maiden speech in parliament, our PM Scott Morrison repeatedly referenced his Christian faith, even going as far as to invoke Jeremiah chapter 9:24: “I am the Lord who exercises loving-kindness, justice and righteousness on Earth for I...
The Increasing Militarisation of the NSW Police Force
Most of us have noticed it, the ever-increasing beefing up of NSW police. There’s the fortified appearance, the enhanced weaponry and the broadening of powers to the point that those on the beat look more like members of an occupying...
Identify and Disrupt: Dutton to Further Extend Surveillance State Reach
Home affairs minister Peter Dutton and department secretary Mike Pezzullo have again been tinkering away at the legislative framework governing the nation’s internal security apparatus to produce yet more legislation containing laws designed to further empower police and intelligence. Introduced...
Just Another Day in the Colony: State Violence Towards First Nations Continues
Just released by the ABC, March 2018 CCTV footage showing NT police assaulting and abusing young First Nations boys in the Alice Springs lockup is not only sickening, but it’s yet more proof that while many consider the colonial project...
So, This Is Xmas: Refugee Rights Rally at the PM’s Horizon Church
The Biloela family - Nades, Priya, and their daughters: 5-year-old Kopika and 3-year-old Tharunicaa - are about to spend their third Christmas locked up in immigration detention. And this is despite them having lived amongst the community in central Queensland...
No Longer a Taboo: Psychologist Carly Schrever on Judicial Stress and Wellbeing
In a 1995 speech delivered in Hawaii, former High Court of Australia Justice Michael Kirby set out that “the general deference formerly paid to judges has been eroded” and “attacks on judges have now become commonplace”. He added that much...
War Powers Should Rest With Parliament: An Interview With Senator Jordon Steele-John
Then PM Tony Abbott withdrew Australia’s last combat troops from Afghanistan in late 2013. It marked the end of our nation’s longest engagement in a specific conflict. However, Australian troops were still deployed to the country in a training capacity...
