Child Sex Offender Cleared to Become a Lawyer
A former male escort who pleaded guilty to having sex with a minor has won the right to apply for admission as a lawyer. The law graduate, known only as KMB, successfully appealed a decision by the Queensland Legal Practitioner Admissions...
RIP Government Accountability in Australia: A Privacy Guide for Journalists
With the scope of online and telecommunications surveillance today, it seems we’re very much living in an Orwellian age. Last week, the complete version of the Australian government’s mandatory metadata regime came into effect. Although the data retention laws were enacted on October 13,...
Prosecutors Want More Prison Time for Aussie Woman Who Killed Indonesian Policeman
New South Wales mother of two Sara Connor is on tenterhooks now that the Denpasar Prosecutions Office has announced it will lodge an appeal against her prison sentence, arguing it is manifestly inadequate. Ms Connor was sentenced to four years...
Sniffer Dog Operations – Ineffective, Intrusive and Dangerous
Once again, figures obtained under the Government Information (Public Access) Act NSW 2009 suggest that the enormous amount of taxpayer funds and police resources invested into drug dog detection programs are not delivering dividends when it comes to addressing the illegal...
Government Bureaucracy Impedes Access to Medicinal Cannabis
Australian health minister Greg Hunt announced last week that medical marijuana will be more readily available within the next eight weeks. He said the government will ensure the fast tracking of the importation of cannabis based medicines. This relaxing of the laws...
Archbishops Slam Catholic Church for Covering-Up Widespread Child Sexual Abuse
Five of Australia’s most senior Catholic figures fronted the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Sexual Abuse, all of whom condemned the Church’s failure to protect vulnerable children. The archbishops of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth were questioned about how...
From the Pulpit to the Bench: An Interview with Chris Geraghty
After years of tension with his seniors at the Catholic Church, Chris Geraghty walked away from the priesthood in October 1976. He’d served 15 years in the Archdiocese of Sydney, after training in the seminaries since the age of 12. Right from...
‘They give God a bad name,’ says victim
More than 1,800 Catholic Church figures and 4,444 allegations of abuse. Horrific numbers, which a senior Catholic Church figure has described as ‘shocking’ and ‘indefensible’ at the 50th public hearing of the Royal Commission - the 16th hearing dealing with...
Stop Criminalising Homelessness: An Interview with Homeless Persons Union’s Patrick “Spike” Chiappalone
A crisis meeting was called at Melbourne Town Hall on Monday night to discuss the city’s homelessness situation, amid calls to create a new bylaw to ban sleeping rough on the city streets. Victoria police and the tabloid media have been pushing...
A Career of Firsts: An Interview with Former NSW Magistrate Pat O’Shane
Former NSW magistrate Pat O’Shane has had a pioneering career, marked by a series of firsts. The Kunjandji woman, who grew up in North Queensland, became the first female Aboriginal teacher in the state. After teaching at Cairns High School for...
