Time for a Treaty: An Interview With FISTT’s Lynda-June Coe
Australia is the only settler colonial nation not to have entered into a treaty with First Nations peoples. While countries like New Zealand and Canada have treaties in place, successive federal governments here have refused to even consider such an agreement....
Border Force Randomly Seizes and Searches Citizen’s Devices at Sydney Airport
On 16 August, British Australian Nathan Hague was making his way through Sydney airport as he regularly does, when he was randomly stopped by Australian Border Force (ABF) officers who demanded he hand over his smartphone and laptop computer. The 46-year-old...
Morrison to Enact Discriminatory Laws under the Guise of ‘Religious Freedom’
Scott Morrison indicated in an interview last week with Fairfax Media that enacting laws to protect religious freedoms is an important part of his agenda. This means the new prime minister wants to pass laws that would enable Christians to discriminate...
School Mistress Avoids Prison for Multiple Aggravated Sexual Assaults
Sections of the community are calling for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to appeal the sentence of a school duty mistress who has walked free after being convicted of sexual offences involving several teenage boys in her care. The...
New Surry Hills Children’s Court Brings Fresh Hope for Troubled Youths
The Bidura Children’s Court in Sydney has a long and fascinating history. It closed its doors last year and has since been replaced by the Surry Hill’s Children’s Court, but the old building standing and has been nominated for heritage...
Australian Journalist Imprisoned in Cambodia Seeks Royal Pardon
A three-judge panel of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court found Australian journalist and documentary film-maker James Ricketson guilty of espionage on 31 August. And to the disbelief of those gathered there to support the 69-year-old, the court sentenced him to six...
Silencing Dissent: Morrison Threatens to Deregister Trade Union
Reigning Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has threatened to close down the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU), following a union boss’ tweet that the head of the executive said was the last straw that broke “the camel’s back.”...
Claims of a ‘Sudanese Crime Wave’: Political Point Scoring at its Worst
Lawyer and social justice advocate Nyadol Nyuon recently asserted on a breakfast news program that media reports of a ‘Sudanese gang crime wave’ in Victoria are unfounded, as crimes committed by that section of the community represent a drop in...
Stopping Abuses Behind Bars: An Interview With Churchill Fellow Steven Caruana
“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons,” wrote the 19th Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky. If his statement is anything to go by, then recent developments would indicate that such an evaluation could lead...
Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Public Service Scammers
Employees of the Department of Home Affairs, which is overseen by Minister Peter Dutton, are reported to have been caught claiming fraudulent sick leave – with one particular employee submitting 29 fraudulent medical certificates over a 6-year period. The figures,...
