Australia’s Callous Deportation System Must End, as Danger Awaits Yet Another Deportee
Then immigration minister Scott Morrison oversaw the passing of legislation in late 2014, which strengthened the character test in section 501 of the Migration Act (Cth) 1958, so that residents of Australia have since been deported en masse, after being sentenced to...
Sexual Offences Against Young Persons Under ‘Special Care’ in New South Wales
The story of Chris Dawson, a high school teacher who married one of his former student’s after his wife Lynette’s disappearance in 1982 is a case that has gripped the nation. And justice for Lynette’s family has been a long...
Can Sending Excessive Text Messages Amount to a Criminal Offence?
Criminal defence lawyers are often called upon to represent clients in cases where there is animosity between two parties but no accusation of violence, deprivation of liberty or appropriation of property - but where the conduct which forms the basis...
Black Deaths in Custody Continue Decades After the Royal Commission
Two Indigenous men died in custody this week - one in New South Wales and the other in Western Australia, highlighting yet again the systemic racism and human rights abuses in prisons. In New South Wales, Wiradjuri man TJ Dennis...
The UN Human Rights Committee Finds Australia Violated Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights
Weeks out from Australia holding a referendum on the Voice, an Indigenous advisory body to government, the UN Human Rights Committee (CCPR) has determined that our legal system has run roughshod over First Nations rights in a decision that happened to...
The Offence of Aggravated Dangerous Driving Occasioning Death in NSW
The teenager who was at the wheel when his ute collided with trees in the small New South Wales town of Buxton, South West of Sydney, has pleaded guilty to several serious driving offences. Tyrell Edwards, who is only 19,...
The Incremental Gifting of Australian Military Control to the United States Is Alive and Well
Veteran journalist Brian Toohey outlines in 2019’s Secret that US intelligence agents weren’t too keen on then Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam’s mid-1970s questioning of the viability of US government operations at local military installations at Pine Gap and North West...
Faehrmann Calls for Regulated Legal Cocaine in NSW, in the Wake of a Spate of Shootings
Released in June, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime World Drug Report 2023 outlines that the Australian use of the illegal drug cocaine is per capita the highest in the world, whilst Sydney has long been known as this nation’s capital of...
Royal Commissions: The Rules Regarding Evidence and How Can It Be Used
The final report of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme made 57 recommendations to the Federal Government and included a secret sealed section which holds the names of several individuals to be considered for further investigation and potential prosecution...
Shane Drumgold Engaged in “Serious Misconduct”, But Will He Face Disciplinary Action?
The inquiry into the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann – which was requested by the ACT’s Chief Prosecutor, Shane Drumgold – has ended as sensationally as it began, with findings that Drumgold engaged in “serious misconduct” by, among other things, lying...