Not Guilty on All Charges: An Interview With Medicinal Cannabis Crusader Dr Andrew Katelaris
At around noon on Thursday, a jury found renowned medicinal cannabis practitioner Dr Andrew Katelaris not guilty on a number of very serious charges relating to the supply and manufacture of cannabis medicines. Representing himself in court, Dr Katelaris argued...
Parking Inspectors Given the Power to Issue Demerit Points
The NSW government has given parking inspectors the power to issue demerit points for certain parking offences, in addition to the fines that apply to those offences. The move has led to fierce debate about whether council rangers should be...
Should Students be Suspended for Striking?
In September this year, nine-year old Brisbane school girl Harper Nielsen refused to stand for the national anthem at Queensland’s Kenmore South State School on the basis that is fails to recognise Australia’s Indigenous history. The school demanded the year 4...
Decriminalise Drug Possession: An Interview With Former AFP Commissioner Mick Palmer
Calls for reforms to the approach Australian governments take to illicit drugs are growing stronger. The idea that personal drug use and possession should be treated primarily as a health and social issue, and not a criminal offence, is starting...
It’s Time to Raise the Age of Criminal Responsibility
Right now, children as young as 10 can and are being arrested and locked up in youth detention centres across the country. And this puts Australia out of step with the majority of other nations around the globe where the age of...
High Price User-Pays Policing: The New Tactic to Shut Down Music Festivals
Despite a court ruling last week that the northern NSW music festival Bohemian Beatfreaks could go ahead, the NSW Police Force (NSWPF) was able to push the event interstate by charging the organisers exorbitant user pays policing fees that had the...
Warning! Providing Your DNA to Ancestry Sites Could Make You a Suspect
Australians are once again being warned that law enforcement agencies are increasingly accessing genealogy databases such as Ancestry.com and My Heritage DNA in an attempt to generate suspects. These genealogy companies use forensic material which is voluntarily provided by paying...
Countering Street Harassment: An Interview with Sexism in the City Guest Dr Bianca Fileborn
Crime rates in NSW are at a forty year low. According to NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures, over the 24 month period ending in March this year, only two of the seventeen major crime categories were on the rise....
Penalties Increase for Illegal Mobile Phone Use
In just few hours this morning, a month’s worth of rain fell across Sydney, causing traffic congestion, flooding and property damage. From 5.30am to 9.00am, more than a 100mm of rain poured over the Sydney metropolitan are, creating transport delays...
Removing Criminal Sanctions for Drug Use: An Interview With Australia21’s Dr Alex Wodak
“We call on Australia’s federal, state and territory governments to treat drug use primarily as a health and social issue and to remove criminal sanctions for personal use and possession,” begins think tank Australia21’s recently released fourth report on illicit...
