Government Continues “the Lavish Use of Public Money” to Prosecute Whistleblowers
During budget estimates on Tuesday, Greens Senator David Shoebridge described the federal government having spent over $1.8 million on the prosecution of former ADF lawyer David McBride, as “a lavish use of public money to gaol a whistleblower”. However, National Security...
Queensland Police Target Divergent Thought Considered as Dangerous
The top brass of the Queensland Police Service (QPS) has issued a directive that all officers must report matters involving sovereign citizens, religious extremists and conspiracy theorists to specialist counter-terrorism teams. The announcement was triggered by last year’s Wieambilla shooting,...
Sydney Criminal Lawyers® Weekly Rundown – Articles from 13 to 19 February 2023
In case you’ve missed any of them, here’s a rundown of the past week’s articles: Is BDSM a Criminal Offence in New South Wales? A man is facing court over an “obedient BDSM relationship” with several women on his rural...
AFP Commissioner Avoids Questions About Police Assault of Peaceful Protester
“If I was going to detain somebody, and they were a peaceful protester, I would endeavour to ensure that they didn’t get three broken ribs and fractured vertebrae, like happened after your officers,” Senator David Shoebridge put it to AFP...
NSW Government Continues to Reject Pill Testing, Despite Deadly Consequences
Commonwealth bank employee Kiernan Ngo became the latest person to die at a NSW music festival in drug-related circumstances, following the 26-year-old having presented at Bankstown Hospital at 1.30 am on 12 February, after he’d attended the Transmission event at Sydney...
Coronial Inquest Into First Nations Teen in State Care Triggers Concerns of Systemic Abuse
The recent Coronial inquest into the 2018 death of George Campbell heard that the Yuin Dunghutti and Tharawal teenager, who’d spent the majority of his seventeen years in state care, had likely been a casualty of systemic abuses within the...
The Advantages of Activists Self-Representing: An Interview With NT Lawyer Russell Goldflam
Over the last 12 months, several states tightened the screws on the ability of climate and environmental activists to raise awareness around these issues, via nonviolent civil disobedience actions that disrupt business as usual to capture public attention. The NSW Coalition...
The New Consent Directions in Jury Trials for Sexual Offences
The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Sexual Consent Reforms) Act 2021 (‘the Amending Act’) came into effect on 1 June 2022 (NSW), overhauling the definition of consent as it relates to certain sexual offences and revising the meaning of sexual intercourse, sexual touching and...
Australia is “A Human Rights Pariah”: Senator Nick McKim on Evacuating Offshore Detainees to Safety
On the first day of 2023, Australia continued to hold 159 asylum seekers in offshore detention, with 92 of them in Papua New Guinea and 67 on Nauru. These people fled persecution in their homelands, arriving by boat in Australian...
Former Sexual Assault Suspect Sues Media Giants for Defamation
A man whose career and reputation were ruined through heavily-biased media coverage of a claim of sexual assault in Parliament House, Canberra, has commenced defamation proceedings against mainstream media companies and its reporters. Bruce Lehrmann has filed two civil claims...
