Passive Smoking Defence Exposes Flawed Drug Driving Regime
Magistrate David Heilpern has delivered yet another landmark ruling that reveals the shonky logic underlying the drug driving regime in NSW. The Lismore magistrate accepted last month that a woman tested positive to cannabis because of passive smoking. Nicole Spackman...
Drug Dogs Are No Deterrent & Increase the Harm: An Interview With RMIT’s Dr Peta Malins
These days, commuters alighting the train of an early evening at Sydney’s Central station can be confronted by police with drug dogs. And if a canine makes an indication about one of the citizens on the platform, that individual can...
Keeping Religion Out of Politics: An Interview With the National Secular Lobby’s Peter Monk
As the campaign for marriage equality grew stronger, the debate on religious freedoms rose to the fore, as the state agreeing to grant some in the community the same human rights as others, seemed to irk a number of people...
“We Must Speak Out”: Lawyers Are Obliged to Speak Out About Human Rights
Lawyers stand in a unique position. Their training and practice gives them a keen awareness of how the law functions in our daily lives, as well as the likely impacts of any newly-enacted or amended laws. Often, at times when...
The Adani Mine: Morrison, Albanese and the Growing Rebellion
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was completely right last week when she remarked in regard to the Adani mine that “everyone’s had a gutful”. But, most Australians aren’t feeling it in the bend-over-backwards-to secure-the-mine-opens sort of way that she is. The...
Torres Strait Takes Australia to UN Over Climate Inaction: An Interview With 350’s Glen Klatovsky
Eight Torres Strait Islander representatives from four different islands lodged an official complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee on 13 May against the Australian government over its complete inaction on climate change, which is threatening their island homes. The...
Colonising First Nations: From the Killing Times to Reserves to Incarceration
The British colonisation of the continent now referred to as Australia was based on terra nullius, meaning the land was neither owned nor occupied. As the High Court of Australia acknowledged in 1992, this was a lie, which was obvious...
Australian Prisoner Rights Activist Ends 33-Day Hunger Strike
Sydney man Jock Palfreeman has ended his month-long hunger strike inside correctional facilities in Bulgaria. The 32-year-old began his protest on 21 April, with the aim of drawing attention to rights violations in the local prison system, as well as...
Making Government Accountable: An Interview With Human Right Watch’s Elaine Pearson
In a tragic of sign of just how much a part of Australia today the 500-odd men still being held in transit centres on Manus Island actually are, at least six detainees have attempted suicide since they learnt that the...
Police Use of Strip Searches Skyrockets in NSW
At the 11 May Midnight Mafia festival at Sydney Olympic Park, NSW police officers searched 272 punters following an indication from a sniffer dog. Of these, 32 were charged with possession and eight were issued with new on-the-spot fines. This...
