Turkey’s Relentless Attack on Human Rights Defenders
At around 10 am on July 5, Turkish police raided a routine professional workshop for human rights defenders at a hotel in Büyükada, one of the Princes Islands near Istanbul. The activists were arrested and are now detained and investigated...
NSW Police Failed to Investigate Homophobic Murders
An inquest into the death of 27-year old American mathematician Scott Johnson has heard evidence that defence force personnel at the Army School of Artillery at North Head in Sydney would frequently brag about bashing homosexual men who met at...
Casual Workers Win Right to Request Permanent Work
After its decision earlier this year to slash penalty rates for casual hospitality and retail staff, the Fair Work Commission has now handed casual workers a small win. Casual employees under 85 modern awards will soon have the right to...
Peter Dutton: A Law Unto Himself
Former Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson has warned that Peter Dutton’s growing control over Australian deportation laws is removing important oversight mechanisms offered by the courts and parliament – threatening the separation of powers between the state and judiciary. Before last October,...
Driver Who Collided with Cyclists Appeals Sentence
On 16 March 2014, Thomas Kerr was travelling in his black 4-wheel drive northbound along Southern Cross Drive in Eastlakes, when he ran into the back of seven cyclists from the Eastern Suburbs Cycling Club. It was a dry day,...
NSW Police Given Power to Kill with Impunity
The Berejiklian government has continued on in the Coalition’s tradition over recent years of enacting laws that increase police powers, whilst whittling away at civil liberties, all in the name of a perceived terrorist threat. On June 21, the Terrorism Legislation Amendment...
Cardinal Pell Charged with Multiple Child Sex Offences
Victoria Police have confirmed that Australia’s highest ranking Catholic has been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault, including one of rape, in relation to allegations of criminal conduct in the 1970s. The charges follow months of speculation about whether police...
Man Appeals to High Court After Prosecution Expert is Discredited
In October 1972, Frits Van Beelan was convicted of murdering 15-year old Deborah Leach in Adelaide’s north-west, and sentenced to death. He successfully appealed the conviction, but a jury once again found him guilty in July 1973 after a retrial,...
City of Sydney Shuts Down 24-7 Street Kitchen and Safe Space
Homelessness is a growing problem in Sydney, with hundreds of people sleeping rough in and around the CBD every night. These people have nowhere else to stay, and with the city’s lack of public housing and current housing affordability crisis,...
Victoria Police May Get the Power to Search Without a Reason
Victoria police are pushing the Andrews government to expand police search powers at music festivals, so that officers are able to search patrons for drugs without having a reasonable suspicion to do so. Police claim the powers are necessary to...
