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...
Police Overreach: Officers Harass Patrons Inside Sydney Events Venue
Anti-drug dog campaign Sniff Off reported on 12 November 2022 that it had received reports from Oxford Art Factory patrons that NSW police officers were requiring them to identify themselves via the use of their mobile phones, even though venue security had...
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....
With McBride and Boyle Fried, Dreyfus Commits to Whistleblower Protections
Federal attorney general Mark Dreyfus delivered the keynote speech at the Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference in Sydney on Wednesday, in which he promised to introduce a bill to “make priority amendments” to the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013, by the...
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...
Calls for Inquiry Into Illegal Use of Strip Searches and Efficacy of Drug Dog Operations
A sizable number of Sydneysiders know the experience all too well: it’s early Friday evening, you’ve left work for the week and made your way down to the local, and as you’re sinking a few with some friends, some jokers...
A-G Won’t Explain How ‘The Voice’ Will Affect Acknowledged First Nations Sovereignty
Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe has been repeatedly putting to the government, whether First Nations recognition in the Constitution, along with the insertion of an advisory body with no guaranteed authority, will affect Indigenous sovereignty. The government and the media have been...
Should Juries Be Sequestered More Often in Australia?
The recent mistrial of Bruce Lehrmann, the man accused of sexually assaulting Brittany Higgins in Parliament House, Canberra, has led to debate about whether the jury should have been sequestered - in other words, required to stay at hotels each...
Police to Investigate Suspicious Death of Indigenous Man in Police Custody
An internal investigation has been commenced after an Indigenous man died in a police watchhouse shortly after his arrest. According to the Queensland Police Service (QPS), the 51-year old was taken into custody in Kowanyama - a small community in...
Australian Government Acknowledges First Nations Sovereignty to Senator Thorpe
“First Nations people have been sovereign people of these lands for thousands and thousands of generations. They - we - are sovereign people,” explained Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe to a panel of Attorney General Department representatives, who’d been skirting around...
