Are Criminal Laws Enough to Protect Victims of Forced Marriage in Australia?
Forced marriage remains one of the most complex and poorly understood human rights and policy issues encountered by Australia in recent years.
Opinion – Page 4
Open Letter: Australia must support the removal of barriers to COVID-19 vaccines and medical tools
An open letter from lawyers and legal scholars and organisations calling on the Australian government to support the temporary TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organisation
No refuge: Unpicking the 2021 Australian Budget
Every year, there are high hopes that the budget will usher in new policies for refugees and people seeking asylum. Unfortunately, the 2021-22 budget appears to forecast another bleak 12 months for refugees.
Australians Abandoned in India – the latest victims of political expedience
From safe within their national borders, Australians watch the calamity unfold on their screens – terror stricken families trying to save dying loved ones as the subcontinent’s hospital system collapses – desperately crowdsourcing medicine and oxygen cylinders.
Watching Australia’s Terror Watch List
In early March, then Minister of Home Affairs Peter Dutton signalled his intention to proscribe British Neo-Nazi group Sonnenkrieg Division (SKD), a terrorist organisation. This represented a significant, if contextually alarming, moment in Australian history.
Student Poverty, Human Rights and Academic Silence
Poverty amongst University students is rife, yet many are turning a blind eye to its implications.
Merging of Family Court, Breakdown of Family Law
With the support of One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson, the Federal Parliament has passed a bill that risks saturating the Federal Circuit Court and endangering the safety and welfare of families in critical need of expert attention, writes Gabrielle Ebeling.
Are We There Yet? Five Human Rights Questions After Our Mental Health Royal Commission
There was one message that sung through Royal Commission’s final report into Victoria’s mental health system, “the system is broken.”
Stranded Aussies and Advance Australia Unfair
Esther Rockett, the co-founder of the Stranded Aussies Action Network, writes on the Government’s failure to guarantee the right to return to one’s home country for Australia’s abroad during the pandemic.
Why Criminalisation of Coercive Control is Not Enough
While coercive control legislation would mark a monumental shift away from the violence model of abuse, which sensationalises discrete episodes of physical assault, the reality is that the laws are unlikely, in and of themselves, to serve victims’ needs and prevent future harm.
Failbook: How to Lose Friends and Influencers
Facebook tried to use Australia as a warning to the rest of the world about what happens when you try to regulate them. Instead, they have shown that they are no longer the friendly social network and will go to great lengths to get their way.
Don’t Erase Trans Kids
The NSW One Nation Education Legislation Amendment (Parental Rights) Bill 2020, which is currently open for public comment, would deny children in our community the right to be seen, to be protected, and to be treated with integrity by schools and teachers.