Australian Pensioners Living in Poverty
A Darwin rental property manager won social media hearts recently when she successfully crowdfunded her client’s rental arrears after his pension was cut off. Centrelink debacle Derek Holbrook lives alone in Darwin. His pension recently came up for review under...
No More ‘Section 10 Bonds’ in NSW
On 24 October 2017, the NSW Parliament assented to the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Amendment (Sentencing Options) Act 2017 (the Act) which, as the name suggests, amends the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (the Sentencing Act) in respect of the sentencing options...
Government Wants Crime Commission to Lose Its Ability to Investigate
The New South Wales Crime Commission is a statutory body established by the state government in 1986 to, as its motto says, ‘Analyse. Investigate. Confiscate’; that is, to analyse and investigate serious criminal activity, and confiscate proceeds of crime. The...
Wrongly Convicted Man Awarded $1.5 Million
A cognitively-impaired Indigenous man who spent nearly five years in a Western Australian prison for a crime he didn’t commit has received compensation. The Western Australian government has provided a cognitively-impaired Indigenous man with an ex gratia payment of $1.5...
Client Legal Privilege in New South Wales
Donald Trump is fighting attempts by US prosecutors to obtain approval to review communications seized from the home and offices of his lawyer, Michael Cohen. It is reported that Trump is concerned, among other things, about the exposure of his...
Greens Push to Legalise Cannabis
The Greens have highlight the fact that drug prohibition has proven to be a “dismal failure” and are pushing to legalise marijuana across Australia. It is the first party with seats in parliament to call for the legalisation of recreational...
When is a Defendant Unfit for Trial?
Fitness for trial relates to the defendant’s ability to comprehend and fairly participate in the trial process. It is a procedural question which is reserved for the higher courts, such as the District or Supreme Court, and is separate from...
Ball Tampering Scandal: A Way to Divert Attention from Government Misconduct
Former English cricket captain Andrew Flintoff told the BBC on Monday that it was “absolute nonsense” that the three Australian cricketers implicated in the recent ball-tampering scandal were the only players who were involved in the deceit. The now-notorious incident saw...
E-cigarettes Banned from Public Places
The New South Wales government says it is clearing up the confusion over the legality of vaping across the state. New laws will come into effect in July which mandate a blanket ban on vaping wherever regular smoking is prohibited,...
Push for Wage Theft to Be Made a Criminal Offence
A group of Victorian Unions is leading a campaign to make ‘wage theft’ a criminal offence ahead of the upcoming state election. The Victorian Trades Hall Council and its Young Workers Centre are pushing the government to enact legislation which...
