NSW Premier Says No to Drug Decriminalisation, as the ACT Embarks on Bold Health Approach
Finally, this week, drug decriminalisation came to Australian shores. Laws passed by a Labor Greens government in the ACT came into effect on Monday. This will mean less drug-related deaths, less normally law-abiding citizens arrested, and more time for police...
“We Won the Battle But the War Continues”: Opera House Cannabis Activists Zammitt and Stolk on Their Day in Court
For almost a decade now, cannabis activists Alec Zammitt and Will Stolk have been brightening the Sydney scene with their elaborate protest actions that employ guerilla theatre tactics to agitate for the legalisation and regulation of cannabis in this country....
The Finance Department’s Digital ID Explanation Still Seems to Suggest Mass Surveillance
Sydney Criminal Lawyers posted the article The Coming Biometric Digital ID Will Facilitate Nationwide Surveillance on 3 August 2023. It outlined the bipartisan proposal to establish a national digital ID system with the Albanese government set to release draft exposure legislation this...
Wage Peace Receives Global Antiwar Award for Persistent Protesting of Weapons Industry
World Beyond War is a global peace organisation that advocates for the eradication of war. And not just the conflict of the day, but “the institution itself”. And while there are those who shake their heads at such a notion,...
Federal Human Rights Protections Could Halt Our Descent Towards Totalitarianism
“A Human Rights Act is Australia’s absent foundational pillar, our missing link,” Civil Liberties Australia CEO Bill Rowlings makes clear. “And its absence affects every citizen, because we don’t know precisely where we stand in relation to our government.” Indeed, CLA...
Leg Sweep, Anyone? NSW Police Continues Reign of Excessive Force, Despite Rising Calls for Reform
A NSW police officer arrested an 18-year-old First Nations man with a disability on suspicion of two attempted break and enters last week. And as the officer walked his captor away, the teen dropped to the ground having a violent seizure,...
PJCIS: Major Party National Security Law Rubber Stamping Club’s Mandate to Broaden
Since 9/11, the Australian government has passed coming up on close to 100 pieces of national security/counterterrorism legislation, with bipartisan approval, that, along with enhancing the security state, has served to whittle away at the basic rights and liberties of...
The Political Climate Is Ripe for a Human Rights Act in New South Wales
Australia remains the only liberal democracy globally without rights protections enshrined in federal law. Indeed, until not so long ago, no bill of rights or Human Rights Act (HRA) existed at any level of government: that was until the often-pioneering...
Thorpe Exposes Inconvenient Truths Suppressed by the Voice Debate at the Press Club
One of the greatest travesties of the Voice debate has been its suppression of one of the most vital positions against the establishment of the advisory body, which posits that it will be a powerless and poor substitute for progressing...
“I Hope It’s Overturned”: Former Magistrate Heilpern on Revoking of Drug Driving Mistake Defence
The drug driving regime in this state, as in the rest of the country, has always been controversial, as the testing model used, which ultimately sees people charged and lose their driver licence, doesn’t test for impairment levels, like drink...
