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...
Scott Johnson’s Death Finally Determined a Gay Hate Crime
The third coronial inquiry into the death of Scott Johnson reported last Thursday that the 27-year-old US mathematician died as a result of a gay hate crime in December 1988. The conclusion has put to rest years of speculation that the earlier finding...
How Do I Find the Right Lawyer in NSW?
There comes a time when most of us will need a lawyer, whether to buy or sell property, recover a debt, or something that can be even more stressful such as a family or criminal law issue. So it’s good...
Clan-Based Treaties: An Interview with MP Lidia Thorpe
The Victorian electorate of Northcote had been a Labor stronghold for 90 years. But the November 18 by-election in the inner city district revealed that the local constituents in Melbourne’s north were looking for a more progressive representative. And the...
Government Seeks to Protect Religious Freedom. Or Does it?
Throughout the same-sex marriage debate, there’s been a great deal of talk about religious freedoms. To many, this seems highly ironic, as the point of the conversation was whether members of the community could have the same rights as others,...
