Sixty years after the Battle of Long Tan, a simple Canberra commemoration offered a more thoughtful kind of remembrance – one that honours the dead on all sides and questions the mythology of victory. (more…)
Andrew Fraser
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ACT Attorney shows federal Labor how to resist a political pile-on
ACT Attorney-General Tara Cheyne’s measured response to the controversy surrounding Mark Parton offers a rare example of judging private conduct by its impact on public duties rather than its value as political ammunition. (more…)
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Prosecutors’ improper political push for a personal purpose
A collective show of support for NSW DPP Sally Dowling has raised questions about whether senior prosecutors used the authority of public office for a personal and political purpose. (more…)
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Concentrated power crushing freedom of expression in Cambodia
What an edition of a Siam Reap newspaper reveals about law and politics in Cambodia and constraints on freedom of speech. (more…)
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Those who endure and a question of priorities
Encounters with two Vietnamese men shaped by war raise an uncomfortable question for Australia’s older, wealthier generation: what are our priorities now? (more…)
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Hailing Australia’s under-appreciated life-saving heroes
Desmond Manderson’s High Time – How Australia changed its mind about illegal drugs, is a social history of Australia’s drug policy and a must-read for policymakers. (more…)
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Lady Justice: the scales, the blindfold and …. the social media post
The ACT Director of Public Prosecutions’ increasingly emotive and promotional social media presence raises broader questions about whether prosecutorial offices should market themselves like modern corporate workplaces.
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Shock, horror! An effective parliament in our time?
An ACT Legislative Assembly committee has strengthened proposed sentencing laws by listening to expert evidence and improving the legislation. (more…)
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The wisdom of David Solomon (plus priceless insights, grace and humour)
David Solomon’s ‘Footnotes’ reveals the stories behind Australian politics and journalism – including the moments that never made it into print.
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ACT justice system on the brink from chronic underfunding
Legal Aid, prosecutors and the courts are all under pressure, raising concerns about fairness, workload and the effective operation of the ACT justice system. (more…)
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Could old rivalries spur Albanese to act on human rights?
Kevin Rudd had the groundwork, the evidence and the political moment for a Human Rights Act – and still walked away. Anthony Albanese now has the same opportunity, and no obvious excuse not to take it. (more…)
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Who will prosecute Geoffrey Robertson’s peerless plan for peace?
In his new book Geoffrey Robertson argues the UN Security Council can no longer defend democracy and proposes a new alliance of democratic states. The diagnosis is compelling – the path forward far less clear. (more…)
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Human rights: could Menzies help Albanese see the light?
Australia’s push for a federal Human Rights Act is stalled by political caution and media hostility. The path forward may depend on Coalition support – and reframing the reform as consistent with Liberal tradition.
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Best of 2025 – Words or action? Dreyfus and human rights at home
Mark Dreyfus has been appointed Australia’s special envoy on human rights. Is the government prepared to match international advocacy with concrete action at home – by finally legislating a Human Rights Act? (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Axed AG tells how Labor really changes the Constitution
Despite Labor’s longstanding appetite for constitutional reform, former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus now points to a different path: bold, nation-shaping change without the need for a referendum.
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“Go ahead – make my book list”: slings and arrows, and Eastwood
Shawn Levy’s Clint Eastwood biography captures the contradictions of a screen icon — and the craft behind a career still shaping popular cinema.
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Best of 2025 – ‘We don’t do that in this country’: judge slams DPP
An appeal by ACT director of Public Prosecutions, Victoria Engel, SC, has been dismissed by a Full Bench of the ACT Court of Appeal after only three minutes of deliberation. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Courts brace for next wave of ‘sovereign citizens’
When I wrote about the “Cavalcade of the Cretinous” in February 2022, I thought the anti-vaccination early incarnations of “sovereign citizens” were just a hopeless joke (“Summernats without the sophistication”) that would quietly go away. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Malign AI could change Australian election results, says judge
Justice David Mossop of the ACT Supreme Court has issued a call to arms for lawyers generally, and the High Court in particular, to prepare for palpable threats to “a small, naive democracy like Australia”. (more…)
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Font of all knowledge? Of Rubio, Rupert and playing to type
A curious US culture-war memo about typefaces becomes a sharp lesson in readability, newspaper craft, and how badly those lessons have been forgotten in Australian journalism.
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Federal Court dispatches Sofronoff empty-handed
The Federal Court has again shown itself to be a brutal arena for rebuilding reputations. In Justice Walter Sofronoff’s case, the court has backed the Integrity Commission’s conclusion of serious corrupt conduct. (more…)
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Judge says law still failing to see “deeper truth” of dispossession
An ACT Supreme Court judge has confronted the limits of native title and criminal sentencing, arguing the law still falls short of reckoning with Indigenous dispossession. (more…)
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Words or action? Dreyfus and human rights at home
Mark Dreyfus has been appointed Australia’s special envoy on human rights. Is the government prepared to match international advocacy with concrete action at home – by finally legislating a Human Rights Act? (more…)
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Brave ACT shows restorative justice for sex offenders can work
A major Australian Institute of Criminology evaluation shows restorative justice in the ACT has improved victim wellbeing and significantly reduced reoffending in domestic and sexual violence cases. (more…)
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Axed AG tells how Labor really changes the Constitution
Despite Labor’s longstanding appetite for constitutional reform, former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus now points to a different path: bold, nation-shaping change without the need for a referendum.
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This Russian victory really is one for the little guy
The Castle remains good law in Australia. Almost three decades since the battling suburban solicitor Dennis Denuto introduced us all to the high legal concept of “the vibe of the thing”, the High Court has broadly endorsed the classic movie’s basic contention: a man’s home is his castle. (more…)
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‘We don’t do that in this country’: judge slams DPP
An appeal by ACT director of Public Prosecutions, Victoria Engel, SC, has been dismissed by a Full Bench of the ACT Court of Appeal after only three minutes of deliberation. (more…)
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DPP speaks out – budget crisis, blackmail or a balking of duty?
ACT director of Public Prosecutions Victoria Engel SC has upped the ante — dangerously so in the view of many in the legal profession — in a very public bid for further funds for her office. (more…)
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Courts brace for next wave of ‘sovereign citizens’
When I wrote about the “Cavalcade of the Cretinous” in February 2022, I thought the anti-vaccination early incarnations of “sovereign citizens” were just a hopeless joke (“Summernats without the sophistication”) that would quietly go away. (more…)
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Malign AI could change Australian election results, says judge
Justice David Mossop of the ACT Supreme Court has issued a call to arms for lawyers generally, and the High Court in particular, to prepare for palpable threats to “a small, naive democracy like Australia”. (more…)