CLArion December 2021: Sue Neill-Fraser appeal DISMISSED

Sue Neill-Fraser remans convicted, despite one of three judges ruling that she should not have been convicted in the first place. The other two say that there’s a possibility that that her conviction a decade ago was wrong, but it is not a “significant” possibility, so she should stay in jail. SNF has 12 more years to serve of a 23-year sentence. She is eligible for parole in August 2022. (See fuller analysis of the appeal ruling on the CLA website in early December).

Forensics in Australia roiled by ‘outsider’ criticisms

Forensic science throughout Australia has caused massive miscarriages of justice. There’s Mallard in WA, Farah Jama in Victoria, Gordon Wood and claimed spearchucking a body at The Gap in NSW, Lindy Chamberlain, the Dingo and sound-deadening material in the NT…and, CLA believes, the Sue Neill-Fraser ‘Yacht No Body’ case in Tasmania. But still forensic scientists appear to be super-resistant to critiques of their opinions aimed at improving legal certainty. Here’s a report of an ongoing dispute, being played out in the global scientific media…at the instigation of an Australian polymath stargazer whose base is the foot of a telescope in the Canary Islands, south-west of Casablanca.

CLA VP calls for safeguarding personal images

Police Minister’s so-called ‘ring of steel’ is actually giant privacy-invading mechanism, with no public, police or political-legislative safeguards, CLA VP Rajan Venkataraman says. It’s typical of a repressive approach to governing in a state which has no human rights charter to provide a modest baseline against which to measure surveillance intrusion into citizens’ lives.

Jailing up, crime down: system is ‘Unjust by Design’

Crime in on a 20-year decline, but the number of prisoners in Australia has been growing dramatically over the same period (except for during Covid-19 lockdowns). Why are taxpayers being forced to pay about $330 a day – the price of a top notch hotel stay – for each prisoner each day across Australia? Our justice system generally is no longer fit for purpose, and Productivity Commissions, both national and in Queensland, have recently tried to come to grips with the prison end of Australia’s ‘justice’ system, which CLA says is Unjust By Design.

CLArion Nov 2021: Headed towards an Australia we don’t want

Constantly, when Parliament sits and when it doesn’t, new federal issues emerge every week that cry out for an 'ICAC with teeth' to rein in the excesses of the big end of town (politicians and corporates), and a national Human Rights Act to restore some power to correct wrongs back to the little people of Australia. These needs will be present whichever major party wins the upcoming federal election, so it is important during the election lead-up to drive home public demands for these non-negotiable additions to how we can ensure greater morality and improved ethics in national governance in future.

Why SNF conviction needs overturning

Wrongful convictions expert Prof Dr Bob Moles has written to Members of the Tasmanian Parliament explaining why they should intervene to ensure justice for Sue Neill-Fraser, the woman convicted – in error, CLA and many liberties, rights and legal experts believe – for killing her husband Bob Chappell, on Australia Day 2009 on board a yacht moored in Sandy Bay, Hobart. The Yacht-No-Body case has riven Tasmania in two, with the state’s Establishment figures and systems fiercely resisting to acknowledge massive errors in the original trial which saw her jailed more than 12 years ago. Read What the Court Got Wrong, and How To Fix the Mess, by Dr Moles and his wife and co-author, Prof Bibi Sangha.

CLArion Oct 2021: New law gives police power to pry and lie

There have been mass protests nationwide because police have the power to make people wear masks, and keep 1.5m from each other to minimise Covid-19 sickness and deaths. There have been NO public protests about a new national law approved last month that gives police the power to pry secretly into your electronic devices, change the information on them any way they like, and then charge/convict you on the “evidence”. All police forces have track records of telling lies, or twisting reality, to secure convictions: how in future will we ever know what is true, and what is ‘changed truth’?

Restoring equal rights to Territorians

A man who was there are at the foundations of legal structures in Canberra, Allan N Hall AM, has explained clearly why citizens of the the NT – and of the ACT – should have equal rights to all citizens of Australian States in a submission to the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. The committee clearly states it is considering voting rights, and is not interested in rehashing the voluntary assisted dying debate The committee’s report is due on 6 October 2021.

Confidence in Australian democracy plummets

A federal parliament committee is hearing widespread views on the state of Australian democracy, including our inability to amend the Constitution and a reluctance to hold many referendums, in a series of ‘public’ meetings available to all citizens through streaming. Here is a precis of the comments in a submission by academic Dr Bede Harris, who has recently launched a major book on the subject.

Calls for Tas Attorney-General to re-open SNF appeal

[caption id="attachment_41933" align="alignleft" width="300"] How The Mercury reported MLC Mike Gaffney’s Upper House revelations.[/caption]

A Member of Tasmania’s Upper House, Michael Gaffney, has used the Parliament on 31 Aug 2021 to expose massive, newly-discovered flaws in the the original (2010) and subsequent appeal cases presented by the Crown against Sue Neill-Fraser. She is in her 12th year of a 23-year sentence for allegedly murdering her husband, Bob Chappell. CLA and most independent observers believe the woman was wrongly convicted and should be freed, immediately, and acquitted. A formal criminal appeal is under way, awaiting the verdict of three judges.