It Pays to Know Your Rights
A judge in Downing Centre District Court has found in favour of a 24-year old man who sued the state of NSW for false imprisonment after police illegally detained him for four minutes and 15 seconds at a suburban train...
Are You ‘Fit and Proper’ to be a Lawyer?
Last month, we reported on the case of an 86-year-old lawyer who was ‘struck off‘ after the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal declared he was “no longer a fit and proper person to engage in legal practice.” Between July 2009 and...
Woman Sent to Prison after Spending Unexpected Windfall
Brisbane woman Wendy Baulch has been sentenced to three months in prison followed by a fifteen month suspended sentence, after spending money which was deposited into her bank account by mistake. The fifty-four year old mother-of-four pleaded guilty to one...
Indigenous Incarceration: Australia’s Shame
Indigenous Australians are reported to be the most imprisoned race in the world, and the situation is only getting worse. The proportion of Indigenous inmates in NSW prisons has risen by 35% since the Coalition government came to power in...
Union Leader Encourages Illegal Strikes
The most powerful figure in the Australian union movement has no problem with members breaking “unjust laws” relating to industrial action. The new secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions,Sally McManus, made it clear she supports the decision of the...
“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...
Should Publishing ‘Fake News’ be a Crime?
The Australian Constitution explicitly guarantees just five rights: The right to vote (Section 41), Protection against acquisition of property on unjust terms (Section 51 (xxxi)), The right to a trial by jury for criminal cases in the higher courts (Section 80), Freedom...
Brisbane Grandmother to be Deported After 50 Years in Australia
Fifty-two year old Maryanne Caric has not left Australia since she arrived as a two-year old from the former Republic of Yugoslavia – not even for a holiday. She does not speak her native language of Croatian, only English, and...
