Integrity of Criminal Justice System in Tatters: The ‘Lawyer X’ Scandal
At 4.15 pm last Friday afternoon, the Australian High Court and the Victorian Court of Appeal lifted suppression orders, which lead to the disclosure of the identity of Lawyer X: a police informant, who whispered her clients’ confidential details to...
Towards a Regulated Drug Market: An Interview With Robert Richter QC
Human beings have been using psychoactive substances since prehistoric times. The use of opium, mushrooms, psychedelic cacti and alcohol has gone on for millennia. You might say that drug use has gone hand in hand with the progress of civilisation...
For the Crime of Genocide: An Interview With the Aboriginal Tent Embassy’s Robert Corowa
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy has announced that it plans to take the Commonwealth of Australia and the British Crown to the High Court of Australia for the crime of genocide against the First Nations peoples of this continent. Situated on...
Relaxing the Lockouts for Mardi Gras Exposes the Flaws in the Law
The NSW government has agreed to relax the lockouts for Mardi Gras for the second year running. Patrons will now be locked out of Oxford Street, Kings Cross and Sydney CBD venues at 3 am, rather than the now usual...
There’s a Deafening Silence on the Current ‘Debt and Deficit Crisis’
When Coalition leader Tony Abbott took on the Rudd government in the September 2013 federal election, he whipped up a storm about what he saw as the atrocious state of the economy under Labor, signified by astronomical government debt –...
New Zealand Warns Australia Against Deporting Long-Term Kiwis
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has again criticised the Australian government’s policy of deporting noncitizens on “character grounds”. But, this time her words were sterner, as she warned of the “corrosive” effect it’s having upon the relationship between the...
Shut It Down: Berejiklian’s Botched Festival Licensing Scheme
After months of warning the industry that a festival specific licensing regime will apply for all events statewide, the killjoy Berejiklian government announced a week before its implementation that the new regulations will now only apply to fourteen festivals. NSW...
Random Workplace Drug Testing: A Breach of Your Civil Liberties
Intoxication in the workplace is a significant safety issue. And for this reason, protocols are in place at certain worksites so that employees suspected of being under the influence of alcohol or other drugs can be tested. Increasingly though, random...
Frontline Festival Safety: An Interview With DanceWize NSW’s Jessie Murray
Over the last five months, safety at music festivals has been front and centre. There have been tragic deaths, increased hospitalisations, debates over pill testing, public rallies and an expert panel was convened to investigate the matter. However, all the...
A Healer, Not a Dealer: Jenny Hallam Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges
When the Turnbull government passed an amendment bill in February 2016 that legalised “the cultivation and production of cannabis and cannabis resin for medicinal and scientific purposes”, it was an admission that medicinal cannabis is a valid treatment that patients use....
