Despite Fatalities, NSW Police Increase the Use of Lethal Pursuits
A NSW police highway patrol car slammed into the vehicle of Gai Vieira at an intersection in Cronulla on 5 September. At the time of the collision, the Traffic and Highway Patrol Command officer was in pursuit of another driver who...
Julian Burnside Backs Greens’ Benedict Coyne in Bid to Oust Dutton
Renowned barrister Julian Burnside QC posted a tweet on 23 September pointing out that the “cruel detention” on Manus Island and Nauru has cost Australian taxpayers over $9.6 billion, and the cost of detaining each of the 1,650 remaining asylum seekers...
NSW Police Force Doubles Strip Searches
The NSW Police Force has nearly doubled the number of strip searches it carries out after positive indications from drug detection dogs. In 2016, police officers carried out around 590 strip searches after an initial search turned up nothing, while in...
Calls for Tougher Laws Against Industrial Manslaughter
There is a growing push for the introduction of industrial manslaughter to be introduced as a discrete offence across Australia, in order to prescribe harsh penalties for acts or omissions by employers that result in the deaths of their employees....
Tasmania to Enact Anti-Consorting Laws
The Tasmanian government is pushing through new legislation to criminalise the act of consorting with those who have ‘served their time’. Restricting associations The proposal would make it a crime for a convicted offender to associate with with another within...
Getting Tough on Hate Speech: Section 93Z of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)
Five years on from its initial proposal, the New South Wales Government has finally strengthened the state’s laws against hate speech. On 21 June 2018, the NSW Parliament passed the Crimes Amendment (Publicly Threatening and Inciting Violence) Bill. The object...
Calls to Stop Baseless Ban on Amyl Nitrite
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has just released an interim decision that would see amyl nitrite and other nitrite inhalants banned across Australia. The proposal would move these drugs into schedule 9 of the Poisons Standard along with substances such...
Government Careless with the Private Data of Citizens
The South Australian Government has been forced to shut down guest access to its online land titles registry, after an unidentified overseas ‘guest user’ was able to download the personal details of more than a million Australian home owners. The...
Legalising Personal Cannabis Use: An Interview With ACT Labor MP Michael Pettersson
ACT Labor MLA Michael Pettersson introduced a draft of a private member’s bill into the territory’s Legislative Assembly on 19 September that would effectively legalise the personal use and possession of cannabis. The Drugs of Dependence (Personal Cannabis Use) Amendment Bill...
Food Contamination Laws to be Strengthened
The federal government is proposing to increase the maximum prison term for anyone found guilty of contaminating food from 10 to 15 years. It is also seeking to broaden the scope of existing laws, in order to make it easier...
