Rising Global Protests: A Loosely Linked Call for System Change
Right now, protesters are mobilising across the globe: from Santiago to Beirut to Toulouse. And these seemingly disparate movements are united around a common theme: rising up against an initial government policy change, followed by a general raging against escalating...
Trade Agreements Pre-empt Dissent: An Interview With AFTINET’s Dr Patricia Ranald
Thousands of Aymara Indians held a series of protests in southern Peru back in May 2011, calling on the government to cancel the licence of the planned Santa Ana silver mine in the Puno region. The local Indigenous people asserted...
Ditch the Dogs: An Interview With Sniff Off’s David Shoebridge
The leaked recommendations of the NSW coronial inquiry into music festival deaths suggest that sniffer dogs be abolished at these events, as the evidence points to “a link between the use of drug dogs and more harmful means of consumption”....
Can Police Search Through Your Mobile Phone?
Despite it being a commonly held belief, police don’t actually have the power to simply walk up to someone on the street, demand they hand over their phone and then trawl through it. Rather, there are certain laws that officers...
Justice for Mhelody: An Interview With Migrante Australia’s Lina Cabaero
Mhelody Polan Bruno died at around 10 am on 22 September at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. The death occurred after paramedics attended an apartment the morning before, where they stabilised her. The 25-year-old Filipina trans woman had been holidaying in...
Police Officer Reinstated After Failing Drug Test
In a decision that’s bound to have repercussions on workplace drug testing practices around the country, the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (NSWIRC) has ruled that its initial decision to reinstate a NSW police officer dismissed over a positive drug test...
The Religious Right to Discriminate Bill: Morrison’s Holy Grail
In December 2017, as marriage equality was legalised, then treasurer Scott Morrison launched his religious privilege crusade. Ostensibly, it was to prevent religious discrimination, but in actuality, it marks a bid by the old order to uphold the right to...
Is It Illegal to Refuse a Strip Search in NSW?
In case you’ve been living under a rock over the last 12 months, the use of strip searches by New South Wales police has skyrocketed in recent years. NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge released figures last December showing that the...
Governments Criminalise Protest to Silence Dissent: An Interview With Dr Piero Moraro
The right to protest is under threat in this country, as government has been conducting an all-out assault on mobilising and assembling over recent years. And as this nation remains the only western democracy without a federal bill of rights,...
“My Moral Duty to Rebel”: An Interview With Scientist Dr Martin Wolterding
On addressing the constituency at the podium, Australian politicians tend to shrug off climate protesters as part of the lunatic fringe. However, behind closed doors, those in government hold grave concerns about the implications of rising climate consciousness. This can...
