Criminal Lawyer Charged with Defrauding Legal Aid
A Canberra lawyer is on trial in the ACT Supreme Court this week, accused of dishonestly obtaining $30,000 from a client’s mother at the same time as he was receiving funds from the Legal Aid Commission for the same case....
South Australia Set to Overturn Discriminatory Laws
South Australia was the first state in the country to decriminalise homosexuality under Labor premier Don Dunstan on September 17, 1975. However, the state has lagged behind the rest of the nation in recent years when it comes to laws...
Australian Arrested Over Illegal Surrogacy Ring
Cambodian officials have appealed for an estimated 70 Australian biological parents to come forward to identify themselves and prove they are the real parents of babies carried by surrogate mothers. This comes in the wake of claims by the Cambodian...
Sydney’s Spying Landlord Faces Time Behind Bars
A multi-millionaire Sydney landlord who rigged up an elaborate hidden camera network to spy on his tenants is facing time behind bars. Property owner Masaaki Imaeda pleaded guilty to a string of charges including two counts of filming a person’s...
The Rising Cost of Identity Crime in Australia
Identity theft has reportedly overtaken drink driving, drug possession and assault as the most common category of crime in Australia. A Federal Government report suggests that almost one million Australians fall victim to some form of identity crime every year,...
Euthanasia Laws: Conservative Politicians Defeat the Will of the People
Suicide is no longer a crime in Australia. If a person attempts to take their own life and fails, they will not face criminal charges for doing so, as they did in the past. Society now understands that survivors of...
West Papua: Australia’s Neighbour Under Siege
Indonesian police arrested 106 West Papuans praying in a park in the coastal city of Sorong in West Papua last Saturday. The group was celebrating the eighth anniversary of the West Papua Committee (KNPB): a non-violent organisation campaigning for self-determination....
The Soldiers of Odin: Protectors or Thugs?
A self-proclaimed patriot group is patrolling the streets of Melbourne’s CBD in what they say is an effort to combat rising street crime and protect the public. The group, called The Soldiers of Odin, is an offshoot of the far-right...
Abolishing the Partial Defence of Provocation: An Interview with Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon
The partial defence of provocation can be argued in a court of law when a person who’s killed another claims to have been provoked by the deceased in such a way that they lost self-control and were therefore less culpable...
Is Your Super Financing Terrorism?
Australia’s financial intelligence agency (AUSTRAC) believes millions of our hard earned superannuation dollars could be financing terrorism. AUSTRAC says the possibility must be taken seriously, pointing out that only a handful of super funds disclosed more than half of all...
