The Legal Defence of Necessity In New South Wales
Four seamen are stranded on a life raft after their ship capsizes. After seven days without food and five without water, the situation gets desperate and a sinister decision is made. The victim? The teenage cabin boy, who is killed...
What Constitutes ‘Penetration’ for a Sexual Assault Offence in NSW?
Sexual offences in New South Wales have always distinguished between non-consensual physical activity involving actual penetration – including the historical offence of rape which was abolished in 1981 and the offence carnal knowledge which was abolished in 1986 – and non-penetrative,...
‘Safe Drivers’ Will Have One Demerit Point Deleted, Under NSW Government Scheme
A new initiative by the New South Wales Government means that unrestricted and professional driver licence holders who incur no further demerit points for a year from 17 January 2023 will ‘get back’ one point. The scheme was scheduled to...
There’s a Desperate Need to Focus on Rehabilitation in Australian Prisons
A new programme introduced this year at Cooma Correctional Centre in in Southern New South Wales is matching inmates with homeless, unwanted dogs, and the early results are exceptionally positive. The programme is a collaboration between the prison and Snowy...
PM’s COVID Inquiry Will Be Ineffective, As It Ignores State and Territory Responses
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Federal Health Minister Mark Butler have announced a 12-month inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic response, but it falls well short of public expectations, even though taxpayers will be the ones funding it. The inquiry’s terms...
The By-Design Lack of Federal Rights Protections Is Driving Australia’s Authoritarian Drift
“Australians are unaware of the vast inroads made into our civil liberties by the most authoritarian western democracy currently in the world: Australia,” ACT barrister Bernard Collaery told the Guardian in April. “Democratic Australians are just asleep at the wheel.” And he...
How Can I Make a Statutory Declaration in New South Wales?
A statutory declaration is a legal document containing a written statement that is sworn, or affirmed and declared, before an authorised person such as a Justice of the Peace, legal practitioner or notary public and backed by the force of...
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...
The Legal Defence of Duress In New South Wales
In the hit 2004 film Collateral, Jamie Foxx’s character ‘Max’ is forced to act as getaway driver for a hit man (played by Tom Cruise). Max complies to the hit man’s demands due to what he perceives to be an imminent...
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...
