Peter Dutton Proposes Prison for Refusing to Provide Passwords
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has been absent from the media spotlight in recent times, ever since he contracted coronavirus. And many are asking where the man at the helm of curtailing civil liberties on a federal level has been...
Westpac Accused of Enabling Child Sexual Offences
In amongst all of the COVID-19 news and updates, it seems we’ve been distracted from a lot of other important social issues. Climate change and domestic violence, for example, as well as the fact that Westpac is being investigated over...
COVID-19: Over-Enforcement Is Undermining Confidence in the Police Force
Amnesty International has added its voice to the growing calls across Australia for police to release the guidelines being used to enforce COVID-19 distancing regulations. Over the Easter weekend, after sending a strong message to all Australians to ‘stay home’...
COVID-19 Protest: Fines Issued Despite Drivers Remaining in Cars
The Refugee Action Collective (RAC) Victoria announced last week that it would be going ahead with a car cavalcade protesting the continued detention of immigration detainees at facilities and hotels nationwide, despite police warnings that demonstrators could be hit with...
The COVID-19 ‘Bonk Ban’: The Rules for Visiting Partners
In the final days of March, in address to the nation, Prime Minister Scott Morrison acknowledged the fear and uncertainty being experienced by many Australians during the current coronavirus pandemic, and said compassionately: “No Australian should have to go through...
Why Pell Walked: The High Court’s Findings
The full-bench of the High Court of Australia unanimously entered verdicts of acquittal in favour of appellant George Pell on 7 April 2020, in relation to child sexual offences in respect of which a jury unanimously found him guilty in...
The Offence of Termination of Pregnancy by an Unqualified Person
Until late 2019, it was a crime in New South Wales for a woman to have an abortion, or for another to perform an abortion or supply a drug for use in an abortion. These abortion offences were contained in...
COVID-19 Highlights the Need for an Australian Bill of Rights
Around the world, legal proceedings are being commenced against governments over social control measures implemented during COVID-19, but this presents a legal conundrum which must weigh the reduction of freedoms and legal safeguards against the need to stop the spread...
Pandemic Police Powers Should Not Be Used to Silence Dissent
Just after 4 pm on 10 April, a cavalcade of around seventy vehicles decorated with trade union signs and protest placards made its way through Sydney’s CBD to drive past NSW parliament, calling for no worker to be left behind...
Should Pope Francis Have Made Comments After Pell’s Acquittal?
‘Empty streets and eerie silence greet George Pell’s final verdict,’ read the headline from the Guardian’s coverage of George Pell’s High Court acquittal this week. And how telling those words are. If we weren’t all preoccupied with the immediate and...
