Law Report

As the COVID19 pandemic grips NSW, how do we balance the rights of an individual with those of the broader community? And the Victorian Ombudsman has released a report detailing human rights breaches, many dealing with ensuring compliance with COVID 19 public orders.

This week, the WA parliament is debating new child protection legislation.  Meanwhile a program called Aboriginal Family Led Decision Making is being piloted. Will new laws and programs reduce the vast over representation of Indigenous children in out-of-home care, currently seventeen times more likely than non-Indigenous children?

In the USA there is a growing number of legal disputes involving employees, consumers and university students who are challenging mandatory vaccination requirements. And new research suggests that virtual reality headsets could help jurors reach fairer verdicts in complex criminal trials.

If you earn a million dollars from selling drugs and are convicted under proceeds of crime legislation, you don’t get to keep it. But what if that conviction is quashed years later? Some of the most notorious figures in the gangland era are heading back to courts to appeal their convictions following the Nicola Gobbo scandal. What happens to the 70 million dollars confiscated? Greg Muller asks, what are the laws around proceeds of crime and are they always fair?

Climate change is increasingly being raised in courtrooms around the world. The latest was brought by eight Australian school students and a nun who argued that the government owed a duty of care to protect children from the harmful effects of climate change. As journalist Greg Muller reports, climate change is now seen as a legal and financial risk as well as an environmental one.

Could we soon see the creation of a brand new country immediately to Australia's north? PNG's Prime Minister and the President of the Autonomous Bougainville Government are negotiating Bougainville's future.

Also, what are the most important factors that judges weigh up when sentencing sex offenders? And are judges out of touch with community expectations?

The Uluru Statement from the Heart called for a constitutionally enshrined indigenous voice to parliament. In response, the federal government created a co-design process, which produced an interim report outlining what form this voice might take.

A new report has found that 90% of the 2500 submissions received following the interim report support constitutional enshrinement.

Can revealing Australia’s security operations ever be in the public interest? A former spy, Witness K received a three-month suspended sentence for revealing the Australian government spied on the Timor Leste government during negotiations over oil and gas resources in the Timor Strait.

And, since the 1970s, over 300,000 refugees have settled in Canada under the country’s private sponsorship scheme. Could a similar scheme work in Australia?

Torres Strait's low crime rate, the Muster program

Some countries and states have introduced a Vaccine Passport, to allow more domestic and international movement and businesses to return. What are the technical and legal obstacles to a COVID-19 vaccine passport here in Australia?

And in this Pride Month, while the LGBTQI community has a lot to celebrate in Australia, in many countries they face ongoing legal discrimination, even the death penalty.