Legalising Personal Cannabis Use: An Interview With ACT Labor MP Michael Pettersson
ACT Labor MLA Michael Pettersson introduced a draft of a private member’s bill into the territory’s Legislative Assembly on 19 September that would effectively legalise the personal use and possession of cannabis. The Drugs of Dependence (Personal Cannabis Use) Amendment Bill...
Australia’s First Free Trans Legal Service: An Interview with ICLC’s Hilary Kincaid
Sydney’s Inner City Legal Centre (ICLC) launched Australia’s first pro bono transgender and gender diverse legal service on 10 September. The pilot Trans and Gender Diverse Legal Service will be operating once a fortnight in Kings Cross. The ICLC has partnered...
Richmond’s Safe Injecting Room Saves Lives: An Interview With NRCH’s Demos Krouskos
The North Richmond Medically Supervised Injecting Room (MSIR) opened its doors on 30 June, and it’s already been hailed a success. Over its short time in operation, staff at the facility have treated over 140 people for potentially fatal overdoses. The...
Sleeping Rough in Sydney: An Interview With Martin Place Mayor Lanz Priestley
The release of the 2016 Census homelessness statistics in March confirmed what most already knew: the amount of people with no permanent fixed address in this country is on the rise. The ABS figures revealed that 50 out of every 10,000...
Curbing Rising Racism: An Interview With Greens Senator Dr Mehreen Faruqi
In her maiden speech in federal parliament, Australian Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi warned against the growing “culture of online harassment,” which she explained specifically targets “people of colour and women.” The senator is no stranger to this sort of behaviour....
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....
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...
Ousting Dutton: An Interview With Greens Candidate Benedict Coyne
A few weeks back, Peter Dutton suffered a major blow when he was defeated by Scott Morrison in the Liberal leadership battle. But despite this, the divisive politician remains a formidable force in the party room. Dutton’s still in charge...
Ongoing Encroachments Upon Privacy: An Interview With APF’s David Vaile
Over the last half decade, the Coalition government has been carrying out an ongoing attack on the basic right to privacy. A series of bills has passed through parliament, each serving to erode Australian privacy rights one step further. Currently,...
Fighting Police Corruption: An Interview With Justice Advocate Renee Eaves
The Fitzgerald Inquiry into Queensland police corruption was sparked by media reports linking police officers to illegal activities. Tabling its report in 1989, the inquiry’s findings led to an overhaul of policing practices and the prosecution a former police commissioner...
