New Adoption Laws Will Intensify Stolen Generation in NSW
Currently, there’s an amendment bill before the NSW upper house that if passed would place a two year limit on the amount of time a child can remain in out-of-home care prior to the court having the power to order...
The Ethics of Covert Operations: An Interview With Ex-Undercover Operative Dr Clive Harfield
The purpose of covert operations is for law enforcement agents to obtain evidence that would not otherwise be accessible using conventional investigatory methods. This secretive acquiring of evidence is meant to be done in a lawful manner, so that it...
Pill Testing, Not Penalties: An Interview With Take Control’s Kieran Palmer
Two young people died after taking drugs at the Defqon.1 festival in September. At the time, there was saturation policing at the music festival. There were 194 police officers deployed at the event, some of whom were accompanied by drug detection dogs....
NSW Premier Plays the Race Card
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian caused a stir last month when she took aim at her new whipping boy: immigrants. The daughter of Armenian migrants herself, the premier said she wants the state’s migration levels to be halved. “The rates have gone...
Re-Radicalising Mardi Gras: An Interview with Pride in Protest’s Bridget Harilaou
The first Sydney Mardi Gras parade was a protest march for human rights. Members of the local LGBTIQ community walked down Oxford Street calling for an end to the criminalisation of their lives and the freedom to openly express their...
Noongar Not for Sale: Indigenous Activists Fight Government and Mining Interests
The Federal Court ruled that the Noongar Native Title Settlement was void on 2 February last year. In what became known as the McGlade decision, the court found the agreement between the Noongar people and the WA government was invalid as...
Judge Recognises that Medicinal Cannabis Producers are Not Criminals
The benefits of cannabis medicine are becoming widely accepted within the Australian community. However, laws around the non-profit cultivation of the plant to help the sick continue to carry the same level of criminality as the laws for those who...
Torture is a Crime, but it’s Still Widely Practised
The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1984. Since it came into force in June 1987, it’s prohibited torture under international law. Article 1...
Preventing Violence Against Women: An Interview With Our Watch CEO Patty Kinnersly
Ten women have been killed violently in Australia so far this month. And according to Destroy the Joint’s Counting the Dead Women Australia project, that brings the total number of women murdered nationwide due to violence against women this year...
‘The Saddest Case’: Innocent Mentally Impaired Woman Spends 18 Months in Prison
A report tabled in the Victorian parliament last week outlined that a woman with a significant development disorder spent 18 months in prison after being found not guilty on the grounds of her impairment. In the forward to the Investigation into...
