Increase in Corruption Complaints Against Home Affairs is a Positive Sign, Watchdog Claims
The federal law enforcement watchdog has asserted that an increase in corruption referrals regarding the Department of Home Affairs doesn’t indicate a rise in dishonest conduct, but rather displays a “growing maturity” within the ministry’s “integrity arrangements”. The Australian Commission...
The ICAC and NSW Corruption Offences
Counsel assisting the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) Scott Robertson SC wrote to premier Gladys Berejiklian on 21 October notifying her that in December, he’ll be issuing his draft submission relating to the evidence unearthed at recent hearings involving her....
Punishing, Silencing and Detaining the Innocent: An Interview With Refugee Farhad Rahmati
On 29 October 2020, refugee Farhad Rahmati was forcibly removed from the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation (BITA) facility and taken to the nearby airport, where he was handcuffed, placed on a plane, flown down to Sydney and locked up at...
Morrison Is Fast Turning Australia Into a Climate Pariah
Along with a number of other world leaders, prime minister Scott Morrison received an official invitation on 22 October 2020, asking him to join an online global climate summit, as the usual UN climate conference – the COP – has...
Is Accountability Finally Coming for Aboriginal Deaths in Custody?
NSW state coroner Teresa O’Sullivan made a landmark decision last week, when she cut short the inquest into the death of 43-year-old Wiradjuri man Dwayne Johnstone and referred the matter to the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to consider...
Desecration on Djab Wurrung Country: An Interview With Senator Lidia Thorpe
On the day that the Andrews government lifted its COVID-19 restrictions, it also sent in Victoria police to arrest and forcibly remove around 60 peaceful protesters at the site of the Djab Wurrung Heritage Protection Embassy. And on the day...
Freeing the Refugees Will Free Our Nation: Craig Foster Calls Game Over
Former Socceroo and current human rights campaigner Craig Foster and NRL star Sonny Bill Williams were down in Canberra last week to present federal parliament with a petition calling on the government to accept New Zealand’s offer to resettle refugees...
Strip Searching Women is Routine in Australia
Australians were justifiably outraged when they learnt last week that dozens of women - including thirteen citizens of this country -were taken off a Sydney-bound plane sitting on the tarmac at the international airport in Doha, capital of Qatar, and...
Legalising Cannabis: New Zealand’s Referendum Setback Isn’t the End
Cannabis advocates across the globe were left gobsmacked last Friday, when the preliminary results of New Zealand’s national cannabis referendum turned up a vote against legalising the comparatively innocuous drug, with 53 percent of those polled and counted voting “no”....
Legalising Cannabis Would Assist Australia Out of Its Deep Recession
Australia is going through its greatest economic recession since the Great Depression. The Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures in early September that showed over the 12 months to June the economy had contracted by 6.3 percent. The downturn was...
