Public Servants Gagged by New Social Media Rules
New social media rules released by the Australian Public Service Commission seek to prohibit public sector employees from criticising government policies on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The rules The new rules were published on 7 August 2017 under...
The High Price of Australia’s Flawed Criminal Justice System
Incarceration rates in Australia are at an all-time high. The sharp increase in the number of people being imprisoned in this country began back in the 1970s. In June last year, there were 38,845 adults being held in Australian correctional facilities,...
Changes Brought In by the New National Firearms Agreement
Last week, we featured a piece on the mass shootings that led to tighter gun controls in Australia, such as the Hoddle Street and Strathfield massacres. There were others. Frank Vitkovic killed eight people and then himself in the 1987 Queen Street massacre...
Police Caught Planting Evidence
Two different groups of Baltimore police officers have been accused of planting evidence at supposed crime scenes, after incriminatory body camera footage came to light. The videos have forced Baltimore prosecutors to drop dozens of cases involving one of the...
The Campaign Against Drug Testing of Welfare Recipients
As part of the May budget, the Turnbull government announced its controversial plan to drug test people who are in receipt of social security. Australian treasurer Scott Morrison described it as a “modest drug testing trial” for 5,000 new Youth Allowance and...
Man Charged Under Carly’s Law
The federal parliament passed Carly’s Law in June of this year, and police have just used it for the first time. Police in South Australia have brought charges against a convicted child-sex offender who is facing a string of fresh...
Former Labor MPs Face Fresh Corruption Charges
Former NSW Labor ministers Eddie Obeid, Joe Tripodi and Tony Kelly have been hit with fresh corruption allegations and may face criminal charges. A report arising from an ICAC corruption investigation has recommended that findings be referred to the Office...
Appeal Court Finds GBH Sentence Inadequate, But Does Not Resentence
At 6.43 pm on 6 February 2015, Craig Lulham sent a text message to Bill, the husband of his friend Allison’s mother. It stated, “Bring the cops. I don’t care. It won’t stop me from smashing you are [sic] face...
The Massacres That Led to Tighter Gun Control in Australia
The National Firearms Agreement (NFA) established tighter firearm control laws back in 1996. This led Australian gun laws to become the envy many other countries. But over the following twenty years, these laws have slowly been eroded. And this has much...
Text Message Killer Sentenced
As previously reported, the case of an American woman who sent several text messages urging her boyfriend to commit suicide made legal history in the US, after she was found guilty of manslaughter. Michelle Carter now 20, was 17 when...
