Obtain Explicit Consent to Sex, or You Are a Rapist
The New South Wales Attorney General has asked for an urgent review of NSW sexual consent laws after the story of Saxon Mullins made media headlines this week. Ms Mullins’ case involved a five-year long legal battle involving two high...
Police Officer Stood Down for Mowing Down Pedestrian
A senior police officer has been stood down after running down an 18-year old with a police car on a suburban street. The incident occurred in Thornleigh in Western Australia and there is currently an internal investigation underway into the...
What Disqualifies or Exempts a Person from Serving as a Juror in NSW?
The rules relating to jury service in New South Wales are primarily regulated by the Jury Act 1977. Section 5 provides that every person who is enrolled as an elector for the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales is qualified...
Victorian Liberals Push for Harmful Anti-Sex Work Laws
The Victorian Liberal Party recently passed a motion to support the Nordic model of sex work regulation. This is a sex work policy that criminalises clients and support structures of sex workers, rather than the workers themselves. Passed at the April...
The Five Eyes Alliance Is Watching You
Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull met with his Canadian, UK and New Zealand counterparts for a security briefing at the UK National Cyber Security Centre on April 18. Along with the US, the four countries represented at the meeting make up...
Disability and Jury Service in NSW
The ACT Legislative Assembly has passed laws which broaden the range of people who can serve on a jury. People with disabilities will be no longer be automatically exempt from jury duty in the nation’s capital. Rather, courts will decide...
Courts Struggle to Interpret Emojis
Legal researchers at Melbourne and Deakin Universities have looked into the problems that arise when emojis are used in the courtroom as evidence. The study by Professors Elizabeth Kirley and Marilyn McMahon, entitled ‘The EmojiFactor: Humanizing the Emerging Law of...
Another Ballarat Police Officer Accused of Brutality
Ballarat police have been under intense scrutiny in recent times, after a number of videos emerged of officers engaging in acts of brutality against members of the public. One of those videos shows officers dousing a handcuffed woman with pepper...
Changes to NSW Sentencing Options: Broadened Intensive Correction Orders
The NSW Parliament assented to the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Amendment (Sentencing Options) Act 2017 (the Act) on 24 October 2017, which amends the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (the Sentencing Act) as it relates to the sentencing options available to...
Calls for New Offence of ‘Industrial Manslaughter’
Families of deceased Victorian workers are leading the campaign for a new offence of industrial manslaughter to make corporate bosses responsible for deaths resulting from workplace negligence. 21-year old Jack Brownlee and 34-year old Charlie Howkins were laying pipes at...
