Terrorism Suspects to Have Their Citizenship Revoked
Politicians and media outlets regularly tell us that terrorism is the greatest threat to our Australian values and lifestyle - despite the fact that terrorist attacks occur relatively infrequently compared with other criminal offences. Nevertheless, suggestions that we are at...
Is Being Aggressive Illegal?
An Australian man flying home from Chile last October had an unexpected layover in New Zealand after he was charged with indecent assault and threatening to kill over allegedly becoming drunk and aggressive towards flight staff. While Qantas has a...
NZ Bans Animal Testing for Cosmetics
Animal testing has been instrumental in the the development of new medicines that are important to saving human lives and making our daily existence a little easier and more comfortable. But there is a moral cost – millions of animals...
The Continuing Issue of Police Brutality in Australia
The tragic death of 18-year-old African-American Michael Brown, who was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri last year, thrust the issue of police brutality into the media spotlight. Since the incident, a string of cases linked...
He Made Me Do It! Duress in Criminal Cases
Duress is a legal defence that applies when a person is forced to commit the actions which comprise a criminal offence. Duress is a complete defence, which means a person charged with a criminal offence will be found not guilty...
The Julian Assange Saga: Secrets, Suspicions and Supreme Court Decisions
Australian citizen Julian Assange rocketed into the national consciousness in 2010. Assange is the co-founder of WikiLeaks, a website dedicated to publishing secret information and leaks from anonymous sources. That year, WikiLeaks published thousands of secret US military and diplomatic...
Should Child Killers Lose All Parental Rights?
NSW opposition leader Luke Foley says that parents who kill their children should lose all parental rights, including their right to parent children in the future. He recently announced in the Sunday Telegraph that Labor will propose a new law...
Sobriety Bracelets as an Alternative to Prison
Most of us are aware that very little rehabilitation occurs in prison, so naturally, alternatives to incarceration can be a good thing in the long run. One initiative to cut down on alcohol-fuelled crime and the rising prison population is...
Paying People Smugglers: Is it Ever Justified?
Stopping people from seeking asylum in Australia is an issue that has featured prominently in the political landscape over the past decade. And although Labor and the Coalition don’t always agree about politics, they both seem intent on waging an...
Police Mishandling of the Bowraville Murders
Over a period of five months between 1990 and 1991, three Aboriginal children disappeared from the same street in a housing mission near the NSW town of Bowraville. The bodies of 16-year-old Clinton Speedy Duroux and four-year-old Evelyn Greenup were...
