Canberra Has Turned Its Back on Medicinal Cannabis Patients
In May 2014, Barnaby Joyce spoke out in support of legalising cannabis medicine: a campaign fronted by a young patient named Dan Haslam. And two years later, the Nationals MP helped open the nation’s first medicinal cannabis farm in memory...
Man Sues NSW Police Force for Reputational Damage
Bill Spedding was earning a quiet living as a washing machine repairman based in Bonny Hills on the mid-New South Wales Coast, when his life suddenly changed in 2014. After responding to a work call out, he became a key...
Welfare Drug Testing: Morrison Intensifies the War on the Unemployed
There’s currently a meme doing the rounds of the internet that depicts Jesus feeding the multitude. At the front of the crowd stands prime minister Scott Morrison with outstretched arms, beseeching Jesus as to what he should do. And Jesus...
Law Firms Can Sack Lawyers who Criticise Clients
A Federal Court has ruled that a law firm was entitled to sack an employee who criticised government clients, by advocating for the rights of veterans who had suffered sexual and physical abuse. The lawyer, Gary Rumble, was dismissed in...
Newcastle Man Arrested Over Terrorist Threats
New South Wales counter-terrorism police have arrested an alleged right-wing extremist from Newcastle for threatening to cause a “mass casualty event” at a mosque. 43-year old Cormac Rothsey was arrested following an investigation by the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team,...
Morrison’s Religious Privilege Bill Promotes Prejudice Over Equality
The federal government has just released the exposure draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill, not because there’s any evidence of widespread discrimination against people of faith, but, in reality, it’s a reaction to LGBTIQ people having had the same rights...
The Religious Discrimination Bill: What’s It All About?
The widely publicised case of Israel Folau involved the Rugby superstar having his contract with Rugby Australia terminated for publishing material deemed to be offensive to LGBTI persons and others, in contravention of his employer’s repeated directions. The self-described “devout...
Religious Discrimination Bill: Enabling Persons of Faith to Discriminate
The Coalition has released its long-awaited religious discrimination bill, making it unlawful to discriminate against persons of faith for religious statements that are offensive to others. Many believe the Bill has been informed by the recent Israel Folau saga, and...
NSW to Pass More Laws Aimed at Silencing Animal Activists
The NSW Liberal Nationals government is reinforcing its ever-broadening patchwork of ag-gag legislation, designed to block animal rights activists from exposing inhumane practices and specific incidents of cruelty occurring in this state’s farms and slaughterhouses. NSW agriculture minister Adam Marshall...
Drop the Collaery Prosecution: An Interview With Australian Lawyers Alliance’s Greg Barns
As Australian barrister Bernard Collaery is set to stand trial in the ACT Supreme Court over charges of conspiring to communicate secret information, the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) has stepped forward and called for his prosecution to be dropped. With...
