Refugee Advocates Sick of Albanese Dragging Feet on Human Rights Reforms
Towards the end of 2022, refugee rights advocates were complaining that when they raised the fact that the Albanese government hadn’t made good on its promise to provide those on temporary protection with permanent visas, they were still being told...
Lethal Prejudice: First Nations Deaths in Custody Continue, Despite Royal Commission
First Nations custodial deaths have continued this summer. Over the holiday period, two Aboriginal people have died in WA correctional facilities, with a 45-year-old man having fatally collapsed whilst playing basketball in Geraldton’s Greenough Regional Prison on 27 December. This followed...
Queensland Announces Draconian Penalties to Deal With Youth Crime
Three days before 2022’s end, the Palaszczuk government announced it’s set to enact a set of laws designed to crack down on the punishment of youth offenders, at a time when the nation’s habitual gaoling and harsh treatment of young...
The Government Is Again Detaining Offshore Refugee Medical Transferees In Hotels
Following the passing of Medevac laws in early 2019, and to the chagrin of then PM Scott Morrison and home affairs minister Peter Dutton, 190-odd long-term offshore refugees needing medical treatment were transferred to Australia and promptly dumped in local hotels....
Court Decision Forces Government to Release Detainees Slated for Deportation
In the days leading up to Christmas and on to New Year, Australian authorities released 100-odd immigration detainees awaiting deportation, as a result of their having fallen foul of the character test set out in section 501 of the Migration Act...
Movement on a Federal Human Rights Act, With Ability to Seek Remedy
The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions placed on Australian society sparked a huge national debate on whether governments across the continent had the power to encroach upon the rights of citizens and residents in imposing extraordinary measures, such as statewide lockdowns. Many...
Jesus the Agitator and the Perrottet Anti-Protest Regime: An Interview With Historian Diane Fieldes
The right to protest is under attack in the state of NSW, elsewhere around the country and, indeed, across the western world. And the reason for this is well understood: disruptive protests are drawing attention to the escalating climate crisis and...
Prisoners Must be Given Access to Medicare, Says Gerry Georgatos
Australia has a growing issue with incarcerating people, especially First Nations adults and children, and this habit of dealing with society’s most disadvantaged and marginalised people by hiding them in correctional institutions, extends to denying them regular healthcare inside. Successive...
Report Condemns Heavy-Handed Response to COVID and Calls for Fines to Be Dropped
A Redfern Legal Centre-led challenge to three COVID fines issued by NSW police, resulted in the NSW Supreme Court finding in November that the infringement notices were invalid as they weren’t in accord with the Fines Act 1996 (NSW), which requires the...
Youth Detainees Riot at WA’s Notorious Banksia Hill Youth Prison on NYE
Young inmates at Perth’s Banksia Hill juvenile detention centre rioted on New Year’s Eve, setting fire to two of the facility’s buildings. Close to two dozen of the centre’s prisoners, who are generally aged between 10 and 17 years old, sat...
