Sydney Criminal Lawyers® Weekly Rundown – Articles from 13 to 19 June 2022
In case you’ve missed any of them, here’s a rundown of the past week’s articles: What are the Defences to Defamation in New South Wales? The recently-introduced defence of ‘public interest’ provides some protection to those who criticise politicians and...
NT Government Continues Youth Detention Torture Regime at Don Dale
Six years after Four Corners exposed the atrocities being perpetrated upon children at Darwin’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre - and the subsequent push for reforms in its wake - the Northern Territory government has successfully re-established the institutional torture...
Drug Law Reformists Call on Albanese to Legalise Recreational Cannabis
The 2022 federal election was significant not only in the turning away from the major parties, the rise of the teal independents via the dethroning of prominent Liberal MPs, and the Greens securing balance of power in the Senate, but...
The Defence of Lawful Correction of a Minor
A 46-year old unemployed single mother has been sentenced to nine months’ probation after pleading guilty to assaulting her 10-year old son with a wooden spoon. The court heard that the woman smacked her autistic son, who suffers from ADHD,...
The ACT Government Has Greenlighted Drug Decriminalisation
The ACT is about to decriminalise the personal possession and use of illicit substances. So, while drug supply will remain a serious crime, the capital will no longer criminally charge people for using certain drugs, in a move akin to...
Albanese Won’t Lift the Unemployed Above the Line, Says Antipoverty Centre’s Jay Coonan
On rising to the top ministerial role in the country, Anthony Albanese has shone a light on the fact that he’s managed to achieve this height whilst growing up as the “son of a single mum who was a disability...
Home Affairs Minister’s ‘God-Like Powers’ are Unconstitutional, High Court Rules
The highest court in the land has found that powers drafted by then immigration minister Peter Dutton in 2015 and amended in 2020 which give the minister power to revoke a person’s Australian citizenship are unconstitutional as they breach the...
“Cautiously Optimistic”: NSW Council for Civil Liberties Josh Pallas on Albanese
NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Josh Pallas wrote last week that his organisation welcomes the end of the Morrison government, while it’s “cautiously optimistic” about the coming of Albanese and the changes it could bring. This guarded optimism seems to...
Critical Incident Investigation to be Launched into Pepper Spray Death
A critical incident investigation has been launched by the NSW Police Force after the death of a man who was pepper sprayed during his arrest on Sydney’s M5 motorway. Police were pursuing the man after reports that he...
The Law, Penalties and Defences for Possessing a Commercial Quantity of Unlawfully Imported Border Controlled Drug
A Sydney man arrested and charged with possessing a commercial quantity of unlawfully imported border controlled drugs has been released on a $1 million security for bail. Police allege that Wade Habkouk, who is the CEO and director of a...
