Category Archives: Law (Australia)

Labor’s national anti-corruption commission to hold ‘most’ hearings in private

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Attorney general Mark Dreyfus also confirms integrity commission will be able to investigate conduct retrospectively

Labor is facing a backlash from the crossbench over its decision for the national anti-corruption commission to hold “most” of its hearings in private with public hearings limited to “exceptional circumstances”.

The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday the high bar for public hearings was the “right setting” to avoid “reputational harm”, but did not rule out that it was included at the Liberal opposition’s request.

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Asic investigator denies feeling responsible for Melissa Caddick’s suspected death, inquest hears

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Lead investigator tells court ‘I was doing my job’ after suggestion she was to blame for death

An investigator from the corporate watchdog has denied feeling responsible for Melissa Caddick’s suspected death, after the fraudster’s brother made the suggestion.

Isabella Allen from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) said Adam Grimley asked her the loaded question in June 2021.

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Murder accused had premonition about ‘terrible accident’ before man found in woodchipper, Brisbane court hears

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Barry Collins says his ex-wife Sharon Graham told him someone was ‘going to get hurt’ while clearing land

Weeks before Bruce Saunders was found dead in a woodchipper, Sharon Graham had a premonition about a terrible accident, a Brisbane court has been told.

Graham, 61, and Gregory Lee Roser, 63, are on trial having pleaded not guilty to murder after the 54-year-old Saunders died when working on a property north of Brisbane in November 2017.

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Australian soldier alleges torture survival course involved simulated child rape and left him with PTSD

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Exclusive: The defence force’s alleged handling of the training course prompted a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission

A secretive torture training program has caused debilitating and unnecessary trauma to some Australian soldiers by forcing them into shocking acts of humiliation, including the simulated rape of child dolls and masturbating sex toys over bibles, a whistleblower has alleged.

The Australian Defence Force’s alleged handling of the controversial training course, known as Conduct After Capture Level C, has prompted one traumatised ex-soldier to complain to the Australian Human Rights Commission and prepare a federal court case challenging its legality, the Guardian can reveal.

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Optus cyber-attack: company opposed changes to privacy laws to give customers more rights over their data

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In its submission to Privacy Act review telco said giving people right to erase personal data would involve ‘significant’ hurdles and costs

Optus has repeatedly opposed a proposed change to privacy laws that would give customers the right to request their data be destroyed, with the telco arguing there were “significant hurdles” to implementing such a system and it would come at “significant cost”.

On Thursday, the company revealed it had suffered a massive cyber-attack in which the personal information of customers was stolen, including names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, addresses, and passport and driver’s licence numbers.

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Suggestion Queensland man fell into woodchipper by accident ‘didn’t make sense’, murder trial hears

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Property owner Sharon Beighton tells court she thought ‘where’s Bruce?’ before being told 54-year-old had fallen into woodchipper

Sharon Beighton was initially in shock when told Bruce Saunders had fallen into a woodchipper during a “terrible accident” on her property in 2017.

But Beighton later thought it did not make sense after she asked Gregory Lee Roser questions about the incident, the Brisbane supreme court heard on Tuesday.

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Courts lift suppression orders on ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle’s landmark case

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Boyle took unprecedented step of invoking Australia’s whistleblower protections after exposing tax agency’s aggressive debt collecting practices in 2018

The South Australian courts have lifted suppression orders that would have stymied the media’s ability to report on a landmark case launched by tax office whistleblower Richard Boyle.

The decision, which follows an intervention by Guardian Australia, paves the way for media to more freely report on the first major test of Australia’s whistleblowing laws, which will likely have significant consequences for the protections available to others who speak out about government wrongdoing.

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Daily Mail Australia to appeal Erin Molan’s win in defamation case over racism accusations

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Notice of appeal lodged in federal court says $150,000 in damages paid to Sky News broadcaster is ‘manifestly excessive’

The Daily Mail Australia is appealing a defamation win by Sky News broadcaster Erin Molan, who was awarded $150,000 over an article and two tweets that accused her of appearing to mock Polynesian names in a radio broadcast.

Molan told the federal court last year she did not think she was mocking Polynesian names when she said “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka” on Radio 2GB in 2020.

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‘Where is the evidence?’: critics take aim at NT judge who says antiracism is becoming ‘a religion’

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Opponents say it is ‘surprising’ for Judith Kelly to claim that ‘on the whole, modern Australian society is not racist’, in speech on Indigenous domestic violence

Lawyers and academics have criticised comments by a Northern Territory supreme court judge that antiracism was becoming a “religion” preventing honest discussions about the “epidemic of extreme domestic violence” against Aboriginal women.

In the 26 August speech to a gathering of women lawyers, Justice Judith Kelly said there was a “cultural component” to the violence inflicted on Aboriginal women by Aboriginal men in the territory.

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Federal government seeks to change law that has become central to Sydney train strike dispute

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NSW government had threatened to terminate existing enterprise agreement with rail workers over ongoing industrial action

The federal government has put the Fair Work Commission on notice that it plans to restrict the power of employers to terminate enterprise agreements, something the state Coalition in New South Wales this week threatened to do in its ongoing dispute with rail workers.

After months of bargaining and Sydney train strikes, the NSW government announced on Thursday it would seek to terminate its existing agreement covering thousands of rail workers in the state if the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) failed to cease industrial action.

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Victoria passes laws banning stealthing and requiring affirmative consent

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Consent can include a nod, or reciprocating a move such as removing clothes, as well as verbal cues

Victoria has adopted an affirmative consent model, shifting scrutiny off victims and back on to perpetrators of sexual violence.

Under new laws, which passed Victorian parliament late on Tuesday, a person must have a clear and enthusiastic go-ahead for their belief in consent to be reasonable.

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Victoria paying more than $1m a day to keep unsentenced prisoners in jail

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Despite steep rise in number of prisoners on remand, Andrews government hasn’t reviewed bail reforms

The number of people in Victoria’s prisons who have not been found guilty of a crime has grown more than 140% in just under a decade and now costs taxpayers more than $1m each day.

Despite this, the Andrews government hasn’t reviewed changes to the state’s bail laws that have contributed to the increase, delaying the possibility of reform until after the November state election.

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Australia news live updates: Greens accuse government of undoing its own climate legislation

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Adam Bandt reacts to Labor’s decision to open 46,000km of ocean to exploration, saying his party will continue to advocate for a moratorium on new coal and gas projects. Follow live

A massive haul of the drug “ice”, with an estimated street value of $1.6bn, has been seized in NSW in the largest discovery of its kind in Australia, AAP reports.

Last month, Australian Border Force officers homed in on a number of sea cargo containers that arrived at Port Botany in Sydney.

There would need a change to the law.. with the Liberals saying they’ll take an oppositional role, the only way that will happen is with the support of the Greens.

Our position is that workers should be able to bargain collectively at whatever level they choose.

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Former PM says he did not misuse secret ministerial powers – as it happened

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If Morrison saga was playing out in the corporate world, he would have been stood down from job, Christine Holgate says

Former Australia Post boss, Christine Holgate continues to weigh in on revelations former prime minister Scott Morrison secretly appointed himself to the finance portfolio, overseeing her independent review without her knowledge.

I feel extremely disappointed … To to be told and go through that experience inparliament and then to be told that there will be an independent investigation into you, and then a full Senate inquiry. At no point did I ever know ... the arms-length independent review was actually overseen by Mr Morrison as the finance minister. That doesn’t sound very independent to me.

If this had happened in a corporate world, you know, that person would have been stood down for their job. There would be an enormous set of consequences. But unfortunately, this is allowed to take place in parliament, it feels. I think it’s almost incredible. And actually quite disturbing.

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Scott Morrison had a penchant for secrecy and centralising power – here are four examples

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Even before we learned the former PM was appointed to five extra ministries without telling anyone, there were warning signs of his need for control

This week we learned Scott Morrison was appointed to five extra ministries without his colleagues’ knowledge – but there were signs earlier in his prime ministership that he wanted to keep information secret and centralise power.

Morrison in 2019 arranged it so that he could hold meetings with anyone and treat them as cabinet-in-confidence. During the pandemic, the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission was set up essentially as a shadow public service.

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Australia news live: John Howard criticises lack of detail on voice to parliament as Anthony Albanese arrives in Torres Strait

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The former prime minister has spoken at a National Press Club event at the Canberra Writers Festival

‘Cringeworthy’: energy minister says Morrison’s media conference was embarrassing

Circling back to Chris Bowen’s interview on ABC Radio, where the discussion on climate policy was followed by questions on the biggest story in Canberra – Scott Morrison’s secret appointment to five additional ministries.

I think to be fair that the governor general was in a difficult position, he has to accept the advice of the government or the PM of the day.

It was pretty pathetic, embarrassing and cringeworthy to be honest.

He should call Andrews.

The right thing to do would be to call all ministers concerned.

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Outrage as Australians discover former prime minister secretly gave himself five additional ministries

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Incumbent prime minister says he ‘cannot conceive of the mindset’ that enabled Scott Morrison to appoint himself to additional positions while PM

Scott Morrison secretly appointed himself to five additional ministries while Australia’s prime minister, in what his successor has labelled an “unprecedented trashing of the Westminster system”.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Tuesday he was waiting on legal advice over any possible ramifications of the secret appointments and was “open to reforms and suggestions” so the situation did not reoccur.

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Anthony Albanese seeks legal advice over reports Scott Morrison secretly swore himself into ministry roles

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Reports claim former prime minister’s senior cabinet colleagues were unaware he allegedly swore himself into three ministry positions

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is seeking legal advice over reports his predecessor Scott Morrison secretly swore himself into three ministry positions while in government, a fact that was allegedly concealed even from senior cabinet colleagues.

Morrison’s deputy PM Barnaby Joyce described the reportedly secretive arrangements, allegedly made without the input of the governor general, as “very bad practice”, while Labor minister Bill Shorten questioned whether the former leader had a “messianic complex”.

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Australia’s indefinite detention of people with mental impairment breaches human rights, advocates say

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Experts argue system lacks proper monitoring and effectively ‘disappears’ people, sometimes for decades

Australia’s use of indefinite detention for people with cognitive impairments is a breach of human rights and the “outrageous” failure to implement a proper monitoring regime is rendering people with a disability invisible from public view, experts say.

More than 1,200 people with a mental impairment are being indefinitely detained in Australia despite not having been convicted of a criminal offence. Each state and territory uses a variety of orders to enforce indefinite detention, including in prisons and hospitals.

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Activists lose challenge to NSW laws banning secret filming of animal cruelty

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High court rules laws criminalising secretly recorded footage and audio do not impose too great a burden on speech

Animal rights activists have lost a landmark high court case against New South Wales laws criminalising the use of secretly recorded vision from farms and abattoirs, which they said prevented their attempts to blow the whistle on animal cruelty and abuse.

The state, through its Surveillance Devices Act, makes it a criminal offence to use or possess footage or audio that was obtained using a listening device or hidden camera, and gives no public interest exemptions for doing so.

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