Reason Party’s Fiona Patten on Public Religious Hospitals Denying Abortion in Victoria, Which Andrews Will Continue
The Victorian government voted down Reason MLC Fiona Patten’s legislation that aimed to prevent denominational hospitals, or publicly funded Catholic hospitals, from denying patients certain legally sanctioned procedures due to the religious doctrine the institution adheres to. The Health Legislation Amendment...
Stop the Waste-to-Energy Incinerators, Demands Western Sydney Direct Action’s Melinda Wilson
Right now, Next Generation and Cleanaway are proposing to build waste-to-energy incinerators in Western Sydney, despite a long-term public campaign against their establishment, which, last year, led the NSW Liberal Nationals government to rule them out. Waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration involves the...
Calls to Ban Greyhound Racing Continue: An Interview With CPG’s Fiona Chisholm
In a move described as “the mother of all backflips”, former NSW premier Mike Baird reversed a ban on greyhound racing in October 2016, despite his government only having passed the prohibition, set to come into effect in July 2017, three...
A Misuse of the Law to Silence Me: Vegan Activist Tash Peterson on Liquor Premises Ban
The disruptive protests of animal rights activist Tash Peterson have caused such a stir in her home state of Western Australia over the last three years, that WA police recently banned her from all licensed premises, issuing a barring notice under...
“Police Powers Are Bleeding Out”: Redfern Legal Centre’s Sam Lee on the Strip Search Class Action
The long-awaited strip search class action was filed in the Common Law Division of the NSW Supreme Court on 21 July. The proceedings will cover all music festival attendees, who’ve registered and been subjected to a suspect strip search at events...
“The Time Has Come for Full Disclosure”: Former Senator Rex Patrick on the Timor-Leste Files
Former Senator Rex Patrick was standing outside Room 5.3 of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on 28 July, while proceedings were taking place inside, as, despite his having initiated the case being heard, he wasn’t permitted to enter due to the secrecy...
Sex Work as Work Is a Feminist Issue, Says Rights Activist Julie Bates AO
Writer/director Victoria Midwinter Pitt’s I’m With Her continues play to sell-out audiences around the country. The piece explores the journeys of resistance taken by eight pioneering women in patriarchal Australia through a #MeToo lens. Amongst the voices of the women that...
“Changing the National Debate”: Senator David Shoebridge on the Greens Agenda
The 47th Australian parliament sat for the first time on Tuesday. This saw the Albanese government taking the reins in the two chambers, the composition of which has dramatically changed since the country took to the polling booths in late...
Collaery Prosecution Dropped, But Politicians Remain Unaccountable for Bugging Timor Cabinet
In December 2013, ACT barrister Bernard Collaery was at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague set to represent Timor-Leste against Australia, when ASIO raided his Canberra home, along with that of former spy Witness K, who was about to...
“Racism Writ Large”: An Interview with Close Don Dale Now’s John B Lawrence SC
Right now, Don Dale Youth Detention Centre continues to operate. Despite a Royal Commission recommending its immediate closure five years ago, the notorious prison for children is crowded, incarcerating kids as young as 10, applies the use of isolation and self-harm...
