NSW Premier is “Gobsmacked” by Maximum Security Prison Escape
Although prison escapes have decreased in recent years, they still occur from time to time. In fact, there have been two prison escapes in NSW just this month. On the 1st of August, an inmate managed to escape from Kirkconnell...
11 Year Old Boy Charged With Manslaughter
Last week, we published a blog which revealed that gun ownership in New South Wales is soaring despite laws requiring prospective owners to satisfy stringent requirements before being granted a gun licence. That blog outlined statistics which show that, in...
Drink Driving Detective was Unlicensed for Over 20 Years
They’re supposed to set the standard for other road users to follow - but in an incident that calls into question the effectiveness of checks within the NSW Police Force, it has been reported that a police officer who was...
Head of Royal Commission Criticised Over Bias
Lawyers and law students are probably most familiar with Dyson Heydon as a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, but he is now working as the head of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption. Heydon...
The Slow and Painful Death of Sydney’s Kings Cross
Iconic Kings Cross venue Hugo’s Lounge last week joined an increasingly long list of nightclubs and bars which have shut their doors since the introduction of the state government’s harsh lockout laws. The venue had served the Kings Cross area...
Police Shooting Victim is Stripped of Compensation
His story might sound like something out of a nightmare, but for Justin McMaster, it’s a harsh reality. In the early hours of September 26, 2011, the then-19-year-old was sleeping with his family at home in Colyton in Sydney’s west,...
Smoking Now Banned in NSW Prisons
When Victoria rolled out its ban on smoking in prisons last month, riots broke out in the Metropolitan Remand Centre. The riots lasted for hours and a lockdown of all prisons in Victoria followed. Up to 300 inmates were allegedly...
The Real Spycatcher: Government Crimes, Secrets and Lies
Government secrets and assassination plots make for intriguing reading - especially when they are true. But what happens when the government doesn’t want the information to become available to the public? In 1987, Peter Wright, wrote a book entitled Spycatcher:...
Australia’s Treatment of Asylum Seekers: Crime Against Humanity?
Australia has its own criminal laws, both at a state and federal level, but we are also a signatory to the treaty which established the International Court of Criminal Justice (ICC) in 2002. What does the ICC do? A...
Inquiry Reveals Effect of Recent Laws on our Rights
Many are appalled by the Abbott government’s brazen erosion of our civil liberties since coming to power in 2013. In particular, the government has been accused of attacking freedom of speech through a number of pieces of legislation - most...