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....
NSW Premier Continues Assault on Civil Liberties
The Berejiklian government is continuing its assault on civil liberties with the implementation of a further range of oppressive national security measures. And this time, Gladys’ new counterterrorism policy is aimed firmly at teenagers. On February 7, the state Coalition...
Rethinking Closing the Gap: An Interview With NCAFP Co-Chair Rod Little
The Close the Gap Statement of Intent was issued by the Rudd government in early 2008 with bipartisan support. Its stated aim is achieving “equality in health status and life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians...
The World’s Biggest Terrorist was a Fascist
A strange anomaly has been occurring over recent years across social media platforms and political websites, which involves individuals claiming the Nazi party were socialists. Indeed, these pundits would have us believe Adolf Hitler was something of a Bolshevik. Nazi...
It’s Time to Fight for Worker Rights, Again
The blocking of the planned 24 hour Rail, Tram and Bus Union’s (RTBU) strike on January 29, along with the halt to its ongoing bans on overtime, are a stark reminder of just how significantly worker rights have been eroded in...
