What is a Biosecurity Emergency Declaration in Australia?
There have been glimmers of hope that life might be getting back to ‘normal’ post pandemic in Australia, but the Federal Government announced this week that the soon-to-expire biosecurity emergency period implemented in March 2020, will be extended a further...
Controlling the Discussion: Peace Campaigner Jacob Grech on the Brereton Report
The recently released Brereton report details 39 alleged murders conducted by Australian SAS troops in Afghanistan. The document also goes to great lengths to ensure the reader is well aware that no one knew about these war crimes above the...
High Court Rules that Refugees Can Hold Dutton to Account: An Interview with Lawyer George Newhouse
Home affairs minister Peter Dutton looks likely to be hit by a tsunami of breach of duty of care cases brought by asylum-seeking litigants temporarily in this country to receive medical treatment, after having suffered deplorably in offshore immigration facilities...
Berejiklian’s Drug Depenalisation: A “Modest” Step Towards “Inevitable” Decriminalisation
At a 30 November meeting, NSW government cabinet ministers discussed a three-tiered system of depenalisation for the offence of personal drug possession. First spruiked by attorney general Mark Speakman, the step-in-the-right-direction policy gained broad, but not unanimous, support. A conservative...
World Moves Closer to Cannabis Decriminalisation
Despite the lamentable outcome of the NZ cannabis legalisation referendum that saw the usually progressive nation vote in a slight majority against making the plant legal for recreational use, the ongoing international trend towards cannabis use becoming a legal practice...
Lawyers Support Mandatory Reporting of Suspected Corruption
The Victorian judicial system is currently facing the enormous task of re-examining an estimated 1200 cases that may have been tainted because Nicola Gobbo - or ‘Lawyer X’ - informed on her own clients. Acting as a police informer between...
Government’s Plan to Criminalise Cash Payments Has Been Defeated
When the Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019 was introduced to Parliament last year, it faced it’s fair share of media headlines, backlash and criticism. To the relief of many, the law is now officially dead after...
Sydney Criminal Lawyers® Weekly Rundown – Articles from 30 November to 6 December 2020
In case you’ve missed any of them, here’s a rundown of the past week’s articles: Sydney Criminal Lawyers® Weekly Rundown - Articles from 23 to 29 November 2020 In case you’ve missed any of them, here’s a rundown of the...
Victoria Police are Primarily Responsible for the ‘Lawyer X’ Scandal
Established in late 2018, the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants handed down its final report this week. The inquiry delved into Victoria police’s use of criminal lawyer Nicola Gobbo as a police informant and the implications this...
2020: ‘Worst Year’ for Domestic Violence Offences
When lockdowns hit around the world earlier this year, most people were concerned about their jobs, worried about how to homeschool the kids, stressed about pasta and toilet paper shortages, and the absence of friends and families, along with all...
