In What Circumstances Can I Change My Plea of Guilty to Not Guilty in NSW?
A man who unexpectedly pleaded guilty to murdering American Scott Johnson in 1988, has had his conviction quashed on appeal and will now face trial for murder in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Scott Johnson’s naked body was...
NZ Delegation Puts Australian Deportation Abuses on UN Torture Agenda
A delegation of high-level Australian officials appeared before the UN Committee Against Torture last week to participate in the nation’s four yearly review on how its tracking in terms of adherence to the 1984 Convention Against Torture (CAT), as well...
World Leaders Sign Declaration to Introduce COVID Vaccine Passports
At this year’s G20 Summit in Indonesia, the twenty participating world leaders signed a declaration to introduce vaccine passports for their respective jurisdictions, with the stated intention of creating a global verification system to facilitate safe international travel. What is...
The Criminal Offence of Coercive Control in New South Wales
A Bill has passed both houses of the New South Wales parliament which makes it a discrete criminal offence punishable by up to 7 years in prison for a current or former intimate partner to exert coercive control over another....
The Workplace Offence of Engaging in Discriminatory Conduct for a Prohibited Reason in NSW
Australia’s most famous airline is in Downing Centre District Court this week, facing criminal charges after it allegedly dismissed a worker for raising concerns about contracting Covid-19 from aircraft arriving from China at the start of the pandemic. Qantas has...
Police Claim to Have Identified Medibank Cyber-Criminals
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) claims to have identified the group responsible for the Medibank cyber-attack and subsequent data leaks to the dark web, and is promising the suspects will face the full force of the law. But this is cold...
The Evolution of Responses to Domestic Violence in Modern Society
The term domestic violence commonly refers to abuse by one spouse, or de-facto or intimate partner, against another, but also encompasses such conduct against a person’s child, parent, grandparent or sibling. Historically, such violence has been characterised by verbal, physical...
The History of Drug Criminalisation in the Western World
The first importers and suppliers of what are now classed as illegal drugs were not your typical criminals, but a group of nations, called Great Britain, Portugal, France and the United States of America. The Opium war Britain actually started...
The Offence of Reckless Driving in New South Wales
A man allegedly detected driving at 170km/h over the speed limit has had his licence suspended on-the-spot and charged with driving furiously, recklessly, or in a manner or at a speed dangerous to the public; which is also known as...
Criminal Assets Recovery Orders in New South Wales
What would you do if three quarters of a million dollars unexpectedly appeared in your bank account? Perhaps you’d let the bank know in the hope that the money would be returned to the right place. Or maybe you’d take...
