What is a Biosecurity Emergency Declaration in Australia?
There have been glimmers of hope that life might be getting back to ‘normal’ post pandemic in Australia, but the Federal Government announced this week that the soon-to-expire biosecurity emergency period implemented in March 2020, will be extended a further...
Berejiklian’s Drug Depenalisation: A “Modest” Step Towards “Inevitable” Decriminalisation
At a 30 November meeting, NSW government cabinet ministers discussed a three-tiered system of depenalisation for the offence of personal drug possession. First spruiked by attorney general Mark Speakman, the step-in-the-right-direction policy gained broad, but not unanimous, support. A conservative...
World Moves Closer to Cannabis Decriminalisation
Despite the lamentable outcome of the NZ cannabis legalisation referendum that saw the usually progressive nation vote in a slight majority against making the plant legal for recreational use, the ongoing international trend towards cannabis use becoming a legal practice...
Lawyers Support Mandatory Reporting of Suspected Corruption
The Victorian judicial system is currently facing the enormous task of re-examining an estimated 1200 cases that may have been tainted because Nicola Gobbo - or ‘Lawyer X’ - informed on her own clients. Acting as a police informer between...
Government’s Plan to Criminalise Cash Payments Has Been Defeated
When the Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019 was introduced to Parliament last year, it faced it’s fair share of media headlines, backlash and criticism. To the relief of many, the law is now officially dead after...
Victoria Police are Primarily Responsible for the ‘Lawyer X’ Scandal
Established in late 2018, the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants handed down its final report this week. The inquiry delved into Victoria police’s use of criminal lawyer Nicola Gobbo as a police informant and the implications this...
2020: ‘Worst Year’ for Domestic Violence Offences
When lockdowns hit around the world earlier this year, most people were concerned about their jobs, worried about how to homeschool the kids, stressed about pasta and toilet paper shortages, and the absence of friends and families, along with all...
The Brereton Report’s Detailing of Historical Australian War Crimes: Part 2
The recently released Brereton report into alleged SAS war atrocities perpetrated in Afghanistan provides an account of historical Australian war crimes committed in six different conflicts. In our first article relating to the history, we provided a rundown on the...
The Brereton Report’s Detailing of Historical Australian War Crimes: Part 1
The laws of armed conflict or international humanitarian law (IHL) are a set of rules governing what can and cannot be done during war. The four Geneva Conventions and their protocols comprise the majority of the law, with almost all...
Australia Must Take Action Against Alleged War Criminals
Only days after the release of the Brereton Report into alleged war crimes committed by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan, a sickening photo has emerged of an Australian soldier drinking from a prosthetic leg, believed to have come from a...
