Bail Assessment Officer Program Fails to Make an Impact
NSW continues to be the greatest incarcerator out of all Australian jurisdictions. Figures released recently by the Australian Bureau of Statics reveal that 13,228 inmates were incarcerated in our state in September last year, while Queensland came in at second place...
What Is Considered ‘Offensive’ Under NSW Criminal Law?
Offensive conduct is a frequently prosecuted crime in NSW. Section 4 of the Summary Offences Act 1988 provides that “a person must not conduct himself or herself in an offensive manner in or near, or within view or hearing from,...
Teen Activist Is Facing a Decade Behind Bars
The trial of 17-year-old Ahed Tamimi began on February 13 behind the closed doors of an Israeli military court. The young activist, who’s become an international symbol of the Palestinian struggle, is facing up to ten years behind bars. On December...
‘Game Changing’ Medicinal Cannabis Laws: An Interview with Labor MLC Adam Searle
An Australian politician has finally drafted a law which seeks to provide access to medicinal cannabis and is broad enough to get real product into the hands of patients who desperately need it. Leader of the NSW Opposition in the...
Overrepresentation of Indigenous People with Disabilities in Prison
The Australian prison system is overflowing with inmates with mental and cognitive disabilities. It’s estimated that around 18 percent of the country’s population has such a disability, while close to 50 percent of the prison population does. And there’s an even...
A Bill of Rights Would Protect All Freedoms, Not Just Religious Ones
Philip Ruddock’s Religious Freedom Review closed for submissions on February 14. And the review’s expert panel has decided not to publish the submissions it’s received, until it reports its findings to the prime minister on 31 March 2020. Malcolm Turnbull announced the...
Professor Sacked after Reporting that Alcohol is the Most Harmful Drug
On October 29 2009, professor David Nutt was the chair of the UK government’s Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs. However, on the following day, he was promptly sacked after publishing a paper that assessed and compared the harms...
Outrage Over French Sexual Assault Laws
A number of recent ‘age of consent cases’ in France have triggered public outrage and drawn international criticism of the somewhat murky child sex laws the nation has in place. In response, the Macron government is currently drafting a bill...
Waterloo Injustices: An Interview with Indigenous Social Justice Association’s Ken Canning
A 31-year-old Aboriginal man fell from the 13th floor of an apartment block in Sydney’s Waterloo on February 7. The man slipped from the balcony of the residence, as he was trying to evade Redfern police officers who were attempting...
Supermax Prisons: Doing More Harm Than Good
Supermax prisons are the most secure and highly monitored form of incarceration there is. These super-maximum security facilities are designed to house “the worst of the worst:” your mass killers, top-level gangsters, gang rapists and, more so these days, terrorists....
