The Offence of Choking, Suffocation and Strangulation in New South Wales
In December 2018, the NSW Parliament passed the Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill which inserted a new section 37(1A) into the Crimes Act 1900. Unlike the existing section 37, subsection (1A) does not require the prosecution to prove that the defendant’s...
Foreign-Owned Companies Avoid Billions in Tax
As thousands of Australians wonder how they’ll put food on the table this Christmas, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) has released figures which (again) show that many large companies have avoided paying tax in recent years. Despite many individuals being...
NSW Justice Amendment Package Part 2: More Powers for Corrective Services and Sheriffs
It’s been another huge year in NSW parliament. The focus this time, however, wasn’t so much on rights eroding counterterrorism legislation, but the further stripping of civil liberties through last month’s enactment of the anti-protest Right to Farm Bill 2019....
What is Extortion?
The Federal Court’s judgment in 2020 had found Centrelink’s ‘robodebt system’ to be unlawful, and ordered the federal government to pay the legal costs of a social security recipient who challenged a debt notice that was issued to her in...
Police Ordered to Pay for Endangering Domestic Violence Victim
In a win for domestic violence victims and others who have had their private information illegally accessed by police officers, the Queensland Police Service (QPS) has been ordered to pay compensation to Julie (not her real name), after an officer...
Honest Cop Wins Appeal
Many Australians are cheering today, with the news that honest cop Rick Flori has won his appeal in Brisbane Supreme Court. It’s one of many battles the former Queensland police officer has fought, as he took and maintained a stance...
NSW Justice Amendment Package Part 1: Expanded Police Powers and More Criminal Offences
The state’s chief law officer, attorney-general Mark Speakman, has been busy thinking of ways to strengthen and expand laws which criminalise citizens and empower police officers. As a result, our state parliament recently passed what might be described as a...
Pregnant Mum Pleads Guilty to Multiple Fraud Offences
A pregnant mother of two has pleaded guilty to multiple fraud offences in Wollongong Local Court after police raided her home and found a criminal to-do-list sticky taped to her bedroom wall. The list detailed the criminal activities she would...
No Right to Know: Government is Secretly Prosecuting Australian Citizens
Bohemian novelist Franz Kafka’s 1915 novel The Trial tells the surreal tale of bank clerk Josef K, who awakens one morning to find that two agents working for an unidentified government agency have turned up to arrest him on unspecified...
Robodebt is ‘Unlawful’, Federal Court rules
The Federal Court of Australia has found that Centrelink’s debt recovery system is unlawful, in a decision that could pave the way for more Australians to take legal action. Deanna Amato is just one of robodebt’s victims, but her case...
