Waterloo Injustices: An Interview with Indigenous Social Justice Association’s Ken Canning
A 31-year-old Aboriginal man fell from the 13th floor of an apartment block in Sydney’s Waterloo on February 7. The man slipped from the balcony of the residence, as he was trying to evade Redfern police officers who were attempting...
Rethinking Closing the Gap: An Interview With NCAFP Co-Chair Rod Little
The Close the Gap Statement of Intent was issued by the Rudd government in early 2008 with bipartisan support. Its stated aim is achieving “equality in health status and life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians...
Women – the Invisible Drug War Casualties: An Interview With IAWUD’s Freedom Vivian
The war on drugs has been waged for close to fifty years now. In 1971, the Nixon administration heralded in this intensification of drug law enforcement, which has resulted in the mass incarceration of people who use drugs, and military interventions...
Hands Off Our Charities: An Interview With Pew Charitable Trusts’ Dr Barry Traill
On the same day, the House of Representatives was passing a law to legalise same-sex marriage in Australia, the Turnbull government was introducing a bill before the Senate that will stifle the advocacy work that Australian charities and not-for-profit organisations...
Fighting for the Right to Die: An Interview with Dr Philip Nitschke
The Victorian parliament passed voluntary assisted dying legislation on November 29 last year. When the new laws come into effect in mid-2019, local residents over the age of 18, who have less than six months to live, and are suffering...
The Ongoing Stolen Generations: An Interview With Grandmothers Against Removals
This February 13 marks ten years since then prime minister Kevin Rudd issued an apology to First Nations peoples, acknowledging the tens of thousands of children who were forcibly removed from their families in what became known as the Stolen...
Making GPs Medical Cannabis-Wise: An Interview with Dr David Caldicott
In the mid-90s, Israeli medicinal chemistry professor Raphael Mechoulam discovered the endocannabinoid system. The professor’s earlier research had already led to the 1964 discovery of THC: the psychoactive ingredient of cannabis. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a set of cell receptors, chemical...
Australia’s Indigenous Suicide Crisis: An Interview with Professor Patricia Dudgeon
Suicide rates among Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander communities are amongst the highest in the world. This is a crisis born of violent dispossession, intergenerational trauma, and ongoing cultural atrocities. In 2016, intentional self-harm was the fifth leading cause of...
Facing Prison for Providing Free Cannabis Medicine: An Interview with Jenny Hallam
The benefits of medicinal cannabis have been rediscovered over recent years. Clinical trials and research papers have documented evidence that shows cannabis medicines can treat conditions, such as chronic pain, seizures in children with Dravet syndrome and multiple sclerosis. In...
Religious Exemption Laws: An Interview With Professor Marion Maddox
Philip Ruddock’s inquiry into whether Australian laws adequately protect religious freedoms began last Wednesday. Malcolm Turnbull announced the controversial review in late November, in response to the concerns of his colleagues and ‘No’ voters over same-sex marriage laws. The expert panel assisting Ruddock...
