The Constitution “Has Never Been Part of Our Law”: Aboriginal Tent Embassy’s Jessica Savage on the Voice
PM Anthony Albanese announced on 30 August that this nation will be holding a referendum on whether Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be recognised in the Australian Constitution, with an accompanying constitutionally enshrined Indigenous voice to parliament. Many Indigenous...
It’s Always Been About Treaty: Senator Lidia Thorpe on the Progressive Vote
Not having bothered to pay attention to the Coalition’s No campaign as it makes its usual racist claims, this time about an all-powerful Voice to Parliament dividing the nation, hearing leader Peter Dutton’s use of the word “squalor” in relation...
Climate Defender on Trial for Refusal to Disclose Device Passwords: Disrupt Burrup Hub’s Joana Partyka
National attention was drawn to the destructive nature of Woodside’s Burrup Hub project when Joana Partyka and a fellow Disrupt Burrup Hub activist defaced, but didn’t permanently damage, the famous Australian painting Down on His Luck at the Art Gallery...
“We Won the Battle But the War Continues”: Opera House Cannabis Activists Zammitt and Stolk on Their Day in Court
For almost a decade now, cannabis activists Alec Zammitt and Will Stolk have been brightening the Sydney scene with their elaborate protest actions that employ guerilla theatre tactics to agitate for the legalisation and regulation of cannabis in this country....
“I Hope It’s Overturned”: Former Magistrate Heilpern on Revoking of Drug Driving Mistake Defence
The drug driving regime in this state, as in the rest of the country, has always been controversial, as the testing model used, which ultimately sees people charged and lose their driver licence, doesn’t test for impairment levels, like drink...
Major Parties are In Cahoots in Terms of the Surveillance State and Warmongering
The Albanese government has passed new laws to reduce the level of independent oversight that covers this nation’s intelligence agencies, which, thanks to the earlier work of then home affairs minister Peter Dutton, sees some international agents gifted with the ability...
Black Lives Still Matter: Dunghutti Activist Paul Silva Puts Aboriginal Justice Back on the Agenda
At inception, NSW law enforcement had a focus on quelling First Nations resistance to British takeover of Indigenous land, and, over 230 years later, an excessive and overtly brutal focus on those who never ceded control to the Crown continues to...
Ending Native Forest Logging Is Within Reach: Bob Brown Foundation’s Jenny Weber on the National Campaign
Mid-July saw yet another Australian locked up over an environmental protest. This time it was 47-year-old veterinarian Dr Colette Harmsen, who was protesting mining in northwest Tasmania, which was in breach of a suspended sentence imposed upon her for an earlier antilogging...
Welfare Not Warfare: NUS Education Officer Xavier Dupé on Students Rejecting Militarisation Over Society
The Morrison government had already kicked the Australian constituency in the guts in September 2021, when it announced that we were entering a new security arrangement with the US and UK, known as AUKUS, which includes acquiring new submarines that require...
The Time Is Ripe for Drug Law Reform in New South Wales
NSW Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann hit the opening of the 58th NSW parliament running, as she moved four notices of motion on its second day indicating soon-to-be-tabled bills on key drug law reforms: pill testing, cannabis legalisation, a medical cannabis driving defence and decriminalisation....
Receive all of our articles weekly