The Modern Slave Trade is Alive and Well
A CNN report about West African migrants being sold in open-air slave markets in Libya sparked outrage around the globe last month. Although, reports about the growing slave trade in the North African country have been emerging since early 2017. Published on...
Needle Exchanges Are Desperately Needed in Australian Prisons
It’s well-known that illicit substance use occurs right across the Australian prison system. A 2010 Corrective Services NSW report found that just over a third of inmates reported using an illegal drug at least once during their current stint behind bars....
Pill Testing Is Inevitable: An Interview with MP Shane Rattenbury
Despite the initial set back to Australia’s first government-sanctioned pill testing trial taking place, it appears that those behind the initiative are confident it will go ahead. According to them, the question is not if, but when. On September 22,...
Marriage Equality is Law, But the Religious Freedoms Debate Continues
It was an historic moment last Thursday, when the marriage equality bill passed through the lower house of parliament, enshrining same-sex marriage in the law. It brought an end to the Howard government’s ban on LGBTIQ marriages, enacted by a 2004 amendment to...
Protesting Pine Gap: An Interview with Peace Pilgrim Margaret Pestorius
Pine Gap is the top-secret US-run military base hidden in the Australian outback, just outside of Alice Springs. Officially known as the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, the base was presented to the Australian public as a space research centre,...
Turnbull Appoints Anti-Charity Campaigner as Head of Charities Commission
Australian charities and other not-for-profits have always played a key role in providing necessary services to some of society’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged people. Indeed, prior to the second world war, charities, not government, provided the majority of social services...
Defendant Appeals after Pleading Guilty Due to Incorrect Legal Advice
On the afternoon of 26 May 2015, Brett Ritchie was pulled over by police as he was driving down the Oxley Highway near Wauchope. The officers then arrested him due to outstanding warrants. Whilst standing next to the car, Mr...
Prohibition is a Recipe for Failure
On 2 June 2011, the Global Commission on Drug Policy declared that the “war on drugs has failed”. The declaration marked a significant shift in public attitude towards the 40-year-old policy launched by US president Richard Nixon that saw the intensification...
Asylum Seeker Rights: An Interview with NZ MP Golriz Ghahraman
The 600 asylum seekers the Australian government is continuing to hold on Manus Island are now staying in transit centres in Lorengau. The facilities aren’t fully complete. There’s insufficient room to accommodate them all. And there’s a lack of water. The...
Country-Based Drug Treatment: An Interview with Professor David Penington
In late October, Victorian premier Daniel Andrews approved a two-year trial of a safe injecting centre for North Richmond. The inner city Melbourne suburb has long been the site of an open street drug market, and 34 overdose deaths have already occurred...
