National Security Law Permitting the Secret Trial of Witness J Is Under Scrutiny
There has been a sustained national debate about whistleblower prosecutions over the last few years, with a chief concern being the national security laws that permit the trials of Witness K, Bernard Collaery and David McBride to be shrouded in...
NSW Parliament to Consider Raising the Age of Criminal Responsibility to 14
NSW continues to lockup children as young as 10 years old. Indeed, the entire nation of Australia does. And rather than term it as imprisonment, it’s sanitised as youth justice. Over 2019-20, this state detained 105 children 13 years or...
Class Action Launched Over Illegal Strip Searches
A class action lawsuit has been launched on behalf of young people who were unlawfully strip searched at the Splendour in the Grass music festival in 2018. In 2019, the New South Wales Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) began an...
‘Zoe’s Law’ Introduced to New South Wales Parliament
At Christmas time in 2009, Brodie Donegan was eight months pregnant with her daughter-to-be Zoe when she was struck down by a car driven by a drunk driver. While Brodie survived, Zoe tragically didn’t. The driver received a sentence of...
The Offence of Police Neglect of Duty in New South Wales
Neglect of Duty is an offence under section 201 of the Police Act 1990 (NSW) which carries a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units, or $2,200. A police officer is guilty of this offence if he or she “neglects or...
The PM Champions Pork Barrelling Over Corruption Watchdog With Teeth
“It’s certainly not a model that we ever consider at a federal level,” said prime minister Scott Morrison in relation to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, or ICAC, just days following the resignation of Gladys Berejiklian from the position...
NSW Police Shoot and Kill Gomeroi Man Stanley Russell
Australian police have killed yet another First Nations person. Once again, there was an outstanding arrest warrant involved, and it happened as officers entered the premises where the man was staying, similar to other such killings. Gomeroi man Stanley Russell...
Israeli Pegasus Spyware Gifts Governments Extralegal Surveillance Powers
The powerful software is being used to illegally hack the mobile phones of human rights defenders. The mobile phones of six Palestinian human rights defenders operating in the Israeli-occupied West Bank were hacked using the NSO Groups all-pervasive Pegasus spyware,...
Drop the Collaery Prosecution: An Interview With the Human Rights Law Centre’s Kieran Pender
Bernard Collaery was back before the courts on Wednesday, as attorney general Michaelia Cash had her lawyers arguing that she wants to introduce new “super-secret” evidence that’s so sensitive in nature that the ACT barrister wouldn’t be able to look...
New Laws Put an End to ‘Gag Orders’ on Victims of Child Sexual Abuse
New South Wales Parliament passed laws this week which will allow courts to break unfair settlements and ‘gag orders’ placed on victims of child sexual abuse. Recommendation of the Royal Commission The issue of paltry settlements accompanied by strict non-disclosure...
