‘Any Extent’ of Injury Can Amount to Female Genital Mutilation, High Court finds
In a majority decision released today, the High Court of Australia found that a female’s genitals do not need to be ‘render[ed] imperfect or irreparably damaged in some fashion’ for the offence of female genital mutilation to be established. The...
Police Officer Who Endangered Domestic Violence Victim Avoids Prison
A police officer has received a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to illegally accessing and using information from a police database. Senior Constable Neil Punchard was apparently joking around when he committed the crime of accessing the Queensland Police Service...
Punishment vs Rehabilitation in the Criminal Justice System
John has had a busy week fishing, looking after horses, and pruning his fresh crop of vegetables, so he’s quite pleased to retire to his room alone, and watch some television before bed. Without context you’d assume John was an...
Free Jock Palfreeman From Arbitrary Post-Release Detention
Jock Palfreeman has been unlawfully detained in Busmantsi Detention Centre in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia since 19 September. The Sydney man has served 11 years in prison for a murder that many believe was an act of self-defence, a...
Testifying to West Papuan Atrocities: An Interview With Academic Jason MacLeod
Widespread civil unrest broke out in Indonesian-occupied West Papua on 18 August. And it continues on to this day. In the region that’s been under the repressive rule of Jakarta since 1963, the mass protests were sparked by racist attacks...
The Law on Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm
A 22-year old Western Australian man accused of burning a toddler with a cigarette lighter and boiling water has told Perth Magistrates Court the little girl tripped over and poured a pot of boiling noodles on herself. Jaycob Yarran, a...
NSW Police Strip Search Toddler
A 16-month old baby and his 17-year old aunt are taking civil proceedings against the New South Wales Government after police allegedly unlawfully strip searched them last year on a visit to see the toddler’s father in a correctional centre....
Police Are Now Arresting Our Elderly for Protesting
In recent years, both our federal government and state and territory governments have passed sweeping laws to ensure those who speak against them or protest about their activities are silenced and criminalised. These laws come in many forms, imposing lengthy...
CBA Faces Criminal Charges for ‘Hawking’
The Commonwealth Bank is facing 87 criminal charges relating to the sale of life insurance policies through its insurance arm, CommInsure. The charges relate to practices and sale techniques used in 2014, and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)...
Why is White Ribbon Australia Shutting Its Doors?
With our nation in the grips of a domestic violence epidemic and the world still reeling from hundreds of thousands of allegations on the back of the global #MeToo movement, it’s difficult to fathom that White Ribbon Australia is shutting...
