Palaszczuk’s Punitive Youth Justice Reforms are Misguided and Potentially Unlawful
Not only is the Palaszczuk government moving to enact harsher youth crime laws at a time when the clear message is that locking up kids is counterproductive and fails to address the societal causes of such lawbreaking, but it’s undermining...
While ‘Cops Out of Mardi Gras’ Is Nothing New, the Reaction to Thorpe’s Agitating Is
Opposition to the involvement of both the NSW Police Force and the Australian Federal Police in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has been long-term. Pride in Protest has campaigned against it since 2018. And following the brutal policing of the 2013...
Victorian Medical Cannabis Driving Reform Likely: Interview With Legalise Cannabis MLC David Ettershank
Right now, medicinal cannabis driving reform looks like it will progress through Victorian parliament, which involves an amendment that many progressive politicians have tried to see enacted in various Australian mainland jurisdictions in the past to no avail. Cannabis medicine...
The Link Between Alcohol and Crime in Australia
As a result of rising concerns about crime in Alice Springs, the Northern Territory government has reinstated bans on the supply of alcohol. The measures, which re-implement aspects of the highly criticised Northern Territory National Emergency Response (also known as “the...
Fatal Police Shootings Are at An All Time High in Australia
A man was shot dead by New South Wales Police this week. According to Assistant Police Commissioner Stuart Smith, officers confronted the man who was wielding a knife at Auburn train station, and had just “seconds” to react after he...
What is the Mental Element of Murder in New South Wales?
Colombian student Hector Enrique Valencia was initially charged with murder over the killing of Kimberley McRae in her Coogee apartment in January 2020, as well as the alternative charge of manslaughter. The 23-year old pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the...
Nauru Hunger Strikers Medevaced to Australia, After a Decade Detained Offshore
Two offshore detainees in Nauru were lying on a blanket outdoors last Friday, after having spent four days without eating or even taking water. These men were hunger striking in protest against our government having held them on the island...
NSW Police with Drug Dogs Saturate Global Mardi Gras: An Interview With Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann
The Australian prime minister marching in the Sydney Mardi Gras this year marked a stark shift in societal values as compared with the first time the event was staged in 1978, which saw the NSW police violently set upon the...
Evolution of Contempt of Court Charges
Contempt of court charges have existed as far back as the 12th century, when it was called, ‘Contempt of the King’ under Anglo Saxon Laws. During the reign of King Edward the Confessor and King William the Conqueror, the offence...
Queensland Set to Introduce Pill Testing
Queensland has been criticised in recent years for its increasingly punitive approach to crime - policies such as suppressing divergent thinking and prosecuting young alleged offenders rather than seeking to embrace free thought, address the underlying causing of crime and...
