No More Drug War Demands Sydney, as Berejiklian Drags Her Feet on Solutions
The 17th of June next year marks the 50th anniversary of the day on which US president Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs. Marking an intensification of then half-a-century-old global drug prohibition, this gung-ho approach to a health issue...
The Offence of Advocating Terrorism in Australia
A New South Wales teenager has been arrested and charged with terrorism offences. In documents handed up to Albury Local Court, police allege that 18 year old Tyler Jakovac from Albury on the NSW-Victoria border used an encrypted online messaging...
The Law, Defences and Penalties for Sexual Assault in New South Wales
A man is facing 135 criminal charges, including 46 sexual assault charges against 31 women that he met via dating apps, whom he allegedly drugged and filmed as he was sexually assaulting them. Police say the 30 year old man...
The Dungay Family Call on the NSW Premier to See Charges Laid
When six immediate action team (IAT) officers stormed the Long Bay Prison hospital ward cell occupied by David Dungay Junior on 29 December 2015, the 26-year-old Dunghutti had served his time and was about to return home to his family...
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...
