NZ to Implement Pill Testing, While Aussie MPs Bury Their Heads in the Sand
NZ police minister Stuart Nash said last week that he thinks independent pill testing tents are “a fantastic idea and should be installed at all our festivals”. He added that a “more compassionate and restorative approach” to illicit drugs should be...
Hung Jury in NSW Supreme Court Foreign Fighter Case
The NSW Supreme Court jury considering the ‘foreign fighter ‘charges of Kurdish-Australian journalist Renas Lelikan was dismissed on 6 December 2019, when it failed to a verdict after four weeks of deliberations. When the trial began in early October, Mr Lelikan’s...
Fascists Rallying over a Fallacy: Nazi Sentiment Seen as Acceptable by Some
Despite Australia being a well-established multicultural society, a group of Nazi sympathisers took to the waterfront last Saturday in Melbourne, once again holding on to the idea of a pure white Anglo past that never actually existed in our country...
Justice for Offshore Detainees: An Interview With National Justice Project’s George Newhouse
National Justice Project principal solicitor George Newhouse filed two class actions on 7 December with the High Court of Australia, claiming the federal government’s treatment of asylum seekers and refugees in offshore detention amounts to crimes against humanity and torture....
NSW Police Treat Strip-Searches As Routine Procedure
The use of strip searches by the NSW Police Force (NSWPF) has recently skyrocketed. Over the last four years, strip search use has risen by close to 47 percent, with 3,735 carried out in the year 2014-15, while 5,483 people...
Representing Festival Interests: An Interview With the Australian Festival Association
Safety at music festivals is an issue that’s been of utmost concern recently. Indeed, over the last four months of the current festival season, five young Australians have died at events due to suspected drug overdoses. In response to the...
Parklea Correctional Centre: A Privately-Run Prison in Crisis
An inmate at Parklea Correctional Centre uploaded a video filmed using a contraband smartphone onto YouTube in July 2017. During the clip, the inmate flaunts a knife and another weapon, and he also holds up a small bag of white...
NSW Labor May Introduce Pill Testing if Elected
The current music festival season has been a tragedy. Just four months in and five young Australians have died due to suspected drug overdoses. Four of these deaths have occurred in this state, one of which happened last Saturday night....
New Gag Laws Will Make FACS Less Accountable
New laws are set to take effect this month that prohibit publishing the names of children and young people who are, or have been, placed in out-of-home care, or are under the parental responsibility of the NSW minister for family...
The US Enacts a Law to Curb Ongoing Tibetan Human Rights Abuses
In a move that Tibetan rights activists hope will embolden other countries to take action, the United States enacted a law on 19 December that targets the ongoing and intensifying human rights violations being carried out in Chinese occupied Tibet. Passed...
