ncreasingly, health professionals face escalating violence and threats to personal safety from the public.Last week, another paramedic was assaulted on the job amid growing public outcries over attacks on emergency workers, with the government being put under major pressure to toughen the law.Between 2009-2014, more than 24,500 healthcare employees reported being a … [Read more...]
Landmark Family Court Decision Removes Barriers For Transgender Teenagers
It has been a historic year for the Australian LGBTQIA community. The passing of the Marriage Equality bill has been celebrated by Australians and people all around the globe. For gay and lesbian Australians, the law has finally caught up and reflects current social values.The same can be said for the Australian transgender community. In a landmark decision, Re Kelvin, the … [Read more...]
Australia First Country Formally Recognising Connection Between Child Trafficking, Orphanage Tourism & Modern Slavery
n its final sitting week of 2017, the Federal Parliament did us proud.Of course, the main achievement was legalising same-sex marriage before the year’s end. But the Parliamentary Committee charged with conducting the Inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia (the Inquiry) also handed down its final report, which has been widely commended for its … [Read more...]
Anti-Terrorism Laws: Continuing Descent Down A Slippery Security Slope
How does a society balance the values of freedom and safety? And what role do political leaders have in maintaining that balance? If we take recent comments from our political leaders seriously, then they either don’t care about these questions, or consider themselves helplessly unable to resist the demands of the nation’s law enforcement agencies. Either reality is … [Read more...]
Long-Overdue Review Into Family Law System Announced
n May this year, the Turnbull Government announced the first ever comprehensive review of Australia's family law system and an $80 million injection of funding to frontline family law and family violence services.Last week, Attorney-General George Brandis commissioned the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) to undertake the first comprehensive … [Read more...]
Legalising Euthanasia Explainer: Victoria’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill Hits Parliament Today
oday, voluntary assisted dying legislation is due to be introduced in both the Victorian and New South Wales parliaments and is set for a conscience vote by the end of the year.If passed, from mid-2019, the highly contentious legislation would allow those suffering from an advanced and incurable illness, disease or medical condition to seek a medically … [Read more...]
Victorian Bail System Reforms: A Band-Aid Solution To Open Heart Surgery
s community safety too often outweighed by the presumption of innocence for serious repeat offenders in bail decisions? Do bail decision-makers lose sight of the proper balance that needs to be achieved and too readily grant bail, even for repeat serious offenders? Have governments paid sufficient attention to community concerns about repeat offenders committing serious … [Read more...]
Are There Laws To Protect Against ‘Revenge Porn’ In Australia? It Depends Where You Live
Australia could have Commonwealth legislation regarding image-based abuse, or “revenge porn,” by the end of this year, but it will not be criminal offences.Distributing intimate images of your ex-partner is a vile act. But it is continuing to happen at an alarming rate in Australia. The latest high profile case is that of Rob Kardashian posting images of his wife Blac … [Read more...]
New Laws Will Require Big Business To Report On Slavery Supply Chains
he Australian Government announced yesterday, as part of Australia’s National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery 2015-19, its intention to create a Modern Slavery in Supply Chains Reporting Requirement.The Global Slavery Index estimates that 45.8 million people worldwide are subjected to modern slavery practices with 4,500 people currently trapped in some … [Read more...]
Royal Commission Child Sexual Abuse: Proposed Sweeping Changes To Criminal Justice System
he Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released 85 recommendations aimed at reforming the Australian criminal justice system. The proposed sweeping changes are aimed at providing a fairer response to victims of institutional child sexual abuse.The Criminal Justice report released today recommends a number of important and necessary … [Read more...]
Hidden In Plain Sight: Extremely Thin Models Are Harming Australian Women
For decades, models that are ‘too thin’ have hidden in plain sight in the fashion industry on catwalks and magazine spreads. Recently, France joined the likes of Italy, Spain and Israel in implementing legislation that aims to regulate the fashion and media industries and to promote positive body image by banning unhealthily thin models.Since May this year, French models … [Read more...]
Don’t Bet On Safe Sports Gambling in Australia
ustralians are among the biggest gamblers in the world.According to the Economist, betting losses per resident adult in 2016 amounted to $1292 last year. That is 40% higher than Singapore, which suffered the second biggest losses and double the average in other Western countries. In stark comparison, Las Vegas lost half this amount.Pokies are still, and have always … [Read more...]
#LawReform: Human Trafficking Training For Flight Attendants Unlikely As Government Sticks Head In Sand
The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance - Benjamin Franklin. he unbelievable story of a flight attendant who saved a victim of human trafficking blew up on social media in February this year. After observing the suspected victim’s erratic behaviour, Sheila Fedrick felt something was wrong, confirmed the girl was in danger by leaving her a note … [Read more...]
#LawReform: Victoria’s Defective Bail System A Threat To Public Safety In Wake Of Bourke Street Attack
Personal safety is a fundamental human right.But how safe can we feel when potentially dangerous criminals are wrongly released on bail? The increasing frequency of terrorist-inspired attacks leaves many of us fearing that at any given moment a criminal who should, by most people’s standards, be in jail could be roaming the streets and ready to harm innocent people.The … [Read more...]
Same-Sex Unions Formally Recognised in ACT: But ls It Enough?
he Australian Capital Territory Government has long been a bold advocate of law reform surrounding same-sex unions. In 2013, it passed a bill that would legalise same-sex marriage in the state, only to have it ruled invalid by the High Court because it conflicted with the Federal Marriage Act 1961, which defines marriage as a heterosexual union. Under section 109 of the … [Read more...]
Intellectual Property Law Reform Needs a Hero
n October 2015, you know, the good old days when Donald Trump wasn’t POTUS and Brexit wasn’t a thing, the Australian Government asked the Productivity Commission to undertake a 12-month public inquiry into our intellectual property arrangements.The result? A document of over 750 pages that identifies pretty much every flaw in our current system, and boy are there a lot of … [Read more...]
#LongReads: Everything Your Social Media Stalker Wishes You Didn’t Know
ocial media stalking - we are all guilty of it, and some of us indulge ourselves a little more frequently than we care to admit. Come on, you know that you have looked at your ex's Facebook profile at least three times this week, just to confirm that their life is hellish and miserable without you.Of course, it is human nature to be curious. While technology allows us to … [Read more...]
Hurry Up, Parliament! We’re Dreaming Of Copyright Law Reform
News of the release of the Copyright Amendment (Disability Access and Other Measures) Bill 2016 exposure draft was probably drowned out by the tiresome election coverage and any hope of immediate action in the first few months of the new government is pipe-dreaming. This is indeed a bothersome state of affairs for copyright reform advocates.Copyright law is … [Read more...]
#LongReads: A Need For Post-Election Reform Of How Australia Manages Asylum Seekers
he recent leak of the ‘Nauru Files’ underscores what has been clear for years now: our government’s treatment of people seeking refugee protection inflicts serious harm on children and adults who have done nothing to deserve it.This regime, now collectively organised under the militarised ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’, involves a number of strategies designed to deter … [Read more...]
Time For Reform: A Growing Need For Proper Regulation Of Online Sexual Harassment
hotos and memes that make a joke at someone else’s expense are a daily occurrence in everyone's Facebook newsfeed.But when social media platforms are misused to go further than a little harmless fun, such as making serious threats and offensive or improper suggestions, do we ever stop to think - is this against the law?A Sydney man, Zane Alchin, who made a string of … [Read more...]