Public Interest Disclosure Laws Stall as Government Interest Reigns
High-profile whistleblowers prosecutions - or political prosecutions, as some prefer - have become a prominent feature of the rule of the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison regime, along with the guarding of state secrets to the point that the proposition of open government is...
Businesses Choose to Stay Closed Rather Than Discriminate
As Greater Sydney starts to open up this week, and a range of new public health orders come into force across the state, several businesses have chosen to remain closed until everyone is allowed entry, rather than refuse unvaccinated customers....
Calls on Police Minister to Curb Officers Flaunting Insignia Linked to White Supremacy
Reports of police officers wearing symbols associated with white supremacy or being captured on camera making symbols conveying the same racist message, have been increasing throughout a number of Australian jurisdictions over the past couple of years. The initial report...
Morrison Pushes Laws to Bury National Cabinet COVID Crisis Documents
At the state and federal levels, there were legislative mechanisms in place to respond to the public health crisis that is COVID-19. As these laws and regulations were drafted, the particular disease they would be applied to was unknown, but...
Police Profiling Intensifies Under COVID: An Interview With NUAA’s Dr Mary Ellen Harrod
The academic paper Policing Biosecurity sets out that of the people NSW police officers pulled up over a suspected COVID breach during the three months to 15 June last year, 45 percent were subsequently searched. However, in stark contrast, just...
Ban Pork Barrelling: Shoebridge on Laws to Criminalise the Shady Political Practice
The story is now well known. On 1 October, the Independent Commission Against Corruption announced it’s turning its investigation Operation Keppel upon then NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian’s conduct in relation to two specific instances of grants funding distribution. The ICAC...
Police Criticised for False Reports and Withholding Evidence Over Indigenous Death
Remains of the body of Indigenous man Gordon Copeland have been found just metres from where he disappeared three months ago. The young man went missing in July 2021, after he was last seen allegedly running from police. At the...
The Law, Defences and Penalties for Aggravated Animal Cruelty in New South Wales
Two teenagers have been charged over the alleged beating and killing of 14 kangaroos on the NSW South Coast, and will face court in November 2021. Police appealed to the community for help after the dead bodies of the kangarros...
Collaery Victorious: Court Rules His Prosecution Should Not Be Secret
The ACT Court of Appeal ruled on 6 October that concerns around the “very real risk of damage to public confidence in the administration of justice” trumped the “risk of prejudice to national security” in deciding to grant Bernard Collaery’s...
As PNG Offshore Detention Ends, Australia Abandons Its Remaining Detainees
Proving she’s just as substantial a human rights abuser as her predecessor Peter Dutton, home affairs minister Karen Andrews announced on 6 October that her government will be abandoning the remaining 120-odd asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea, after detaining...
