Queensland Finally Abolishes the Gay Panic Defence
It’s actually happened. Queensland has abolished gay panic defence. The Criminal Law Amendment Bill 2016 was passed in state parliament on Tuesday night, amending section 304 of the state’s Criminal Code so that an unwanted sexual advance is no longer a provocation to kill...
Predicting and Preventing Crime: An Interview with CTDS’s Dr Roman Marchant
The future is now. Even before you move into your new model home, in that recently-designed outer suburb in metropolitan Sydney, big data is watching you. And it doesn’t need to monitor your movements, or even address your motives, it...
“Come on and suck my d**k you little c**t”, youth justice officer tells child
Juvenile detention centres are places where troubled youths are sent as punishment, and where they can engage in counselling and programs to help get them back on the right path. They are certainly not places where punishment is meant to...
Are the Boys in Blue Really There to Protect You?
There’s a popular perception in mainstream society that the institution of the police was created to protect and serve the interests of the general population, and that officers on the beat are there to prevent crime and promote the interests of justice....
Victoria Police: A Law Unto Themselves
Kyle Stewart was due to appear before Sunshine Magistrates Court on March 8 to face a charge of unlicensed driving. He had been arrested and held in police custody, but officers neglected to take him to court that morning despite being required to...
Keep Adani Out: An Interview with Wangan and Jagalingou Council’s Murrawah Johnson
The Adani Carmichael coal mine is a $22 billion dollar project that, if approved, will be built in the Galilee Basin, Queensland. If the Indian multinational manages to get approval, the mine will be the biggest in Australia, comprised of six...
Innocent Until Proven Guilty? Australian Prisons Full of Inmates on Remand
The Ravenhall prison riot broke out on June 30 2015. The major reason given for the disturbance was a tobacco ban that was about to be enforced the following day. However, an independent report found another major reason behind the incident was overcrowding...
Australia Should Follow Portugal’s Drug Decriminalisation Model
Portugal decriminalised the possession of all illicit drugs for personal use in 2001. If an individual is found with a permitted amount of cannabis, methamphetamine or heroin on them, they are not sent to court where they face the prospect...
Refugees On Sovereign Soil: An Interview with Koradji Aboriginal Tent Embassy’s Gabitja
The original Aboriginal Tent Embassy was founded on the lawns of what is now called old Parliament House in Canberra on Invasion Day, January 26 1972. Four Indigenous activists instigated the protest that’s still going strong 45 years later. These young men...
The Prison Industrial Complex – Exerting Social Control and Producing Cheap Labour
Prison industrial complex (PIC) is a term used to describe systems where the government uses incarceration as a way to deal with people labelled as undesirable, while helping private industry to turn a profit. Such models are heavily focused on...
