Cannabis Legalisation Is Creeping Closer for Canberra
The ACT Legislative Assembly health committee last week tabled its report on the legislation that would see the personal possession and use of cannabis legalised in the capital territory. And with a great sigh of relief, the review recommended the...
Silencing Dissent: Government Demonises and Targets Animal Welfare Activists
Recently appointed Australian agriculture minister Bridget McKenzie has vowed to continue the Morrison government’s crackdown on animal welfare activists with the fast tracking of new laws aimed at preventing protests being carried out by those she terms as “agri-terrorists”. Prime...
Exposing the Far-Right in Australia: An Interview With the White Rose Society
The White Rose Society is a clandestine group of online anti-fascists operating in Australia. It has the aim of exposing the rising white nationalist movement in this country in all its various forms: from street-level movements to politicking at the...
Government Reach Is Too Pervasive: An Interview With Electronic Frontiers Australia’s Angus Murray
Australians were shocked last week as reports circulated about federal police agents raiding the Sydney offices of the Australian national broadcaster over the July 2017 publication of classified document details. The Sovietesque fear many felt when they realised the law...
The Impact of Police Strip Searches on Kids And Sexual Abuse Victims
Right now, when taxpayers’ daughters and sons go out to cultural events, there’s the very real possibility that they’ll be taken into a tent alone by two armed police officers and ordered to remove their clothes Teenagers are being led...
The AFP Press Raids: Towards a Totalitarian State
As the federal government continues to pass one draconian national security law after another post-9/11, it’s often said that the concerning aspect of this is not that these laws will actually be used in the present, but there’s a chance...
Towards Torres Strait Autonomy: An Interview With GBK’s Ned David
Greater autonomy for the Torres Strait Islands has been on the agenda for decades. However, right now, the momentum to see First Nations governance of the 270-odd islands in the strip of water north of Cape York is building. Three...
The PM’s Religious Shackles: An Interview With Professor Philip Almond
As Scott Morrison took to the podium to claim his election victory in May, he declared, “I have always believed in miracles.” And he wasn’t being figurative, as a born-again Christian, the prime minister certainly does have faith in these...
If You’re Refused Bail, You’re Likely to Get a Harsher Sentence
The NSW adult prisoner population seems to have stabilised in recent times, after a half decade of dramatic increase, which saw the under 10,000 inmates of 2013 rise to a peak of 13,651 detainees in May last year. And this...
The Coalition’s Silence on Treaty: An Interview With Indigenous Rights Activist Lynda-June Coe
Noongar man Ken Wyatt made history last week when he was sworn in as the nation’s first Indigenous affairs minister. First Nations organisations across the country said that the appointment was one that spoke of hope. This historic first also...
