Being proud of Australia is a good thing on Australia Day, but embedded in nationalism always lurks the danger of an exclusionary attitude to people who are not exactly like us, says James Dunn. The best nationalist is an internationalist, who knows that…
Editor, The West Australian: Sir, I respond to your report ‘Overcrowding to blame for jail assaults’ TWA 16 Dec 09 p18.
It goes without saying that overcrowded prisons where prisoners are forced to share a cell with other prisoners will always be open t…
You’d think, from all the posturing by Law & Order (LO) politicians through Australia, that crime was up, but it is down. But what’s really up is the prison population, by 36% (or 7759) from 21,358 to 29,317 over the past 10 years. At nearly $100,000…
DNA requires debate, legislationNew uses for DNA information are permeating Australia without debate about how we want to regulate either a useful guide to health or a tool to discrimate against people who – by accident of birth – are slightly different from whatever ‘average’ is.…
News coverage of America’s Taxpayer March on DC, 12 September 2009, shows hundreds of signs with words now given new meanings: communist, socialist, fascist, Nazi. Equating the current American administration with any of these demonstrates ignorance, or…
Abortion is a difficult societal issue where health concerns are paramount. Women should have the right to make decisions about their own bodies. Laws around the issue of abortion should be based on health grounds, not criminal penalties.Abortion is a…
State and Territory Governments in Australia are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on locking juvenile offenders behind bars, when diversion programs are both cheaper and more effective. Mission Australia, like CLA, calls for targeted reduction of…
Teenage years are for experimenting, and doing ‘stuff’ that’s blush-making years later. But the elephantine web remembers peccadillos: should young people already blighting their futures with reveal-all photos also face a criminal penalty? Melanie Pe…
As New Zealand’s former Prime Minister, Helen Clark, puts her hand up for a top UN job, how does NZ’s record on human rights compare with Australia’s, where a bill of rights consultation is just starting?
Blasphemy should be eliminated from the 21st Century legal lexicon. The antidote to blasphemy is a flood of free speech. Australians have always put their faith in freedoms: whatever restricts freedom, restricts our nature and our nation. Read CLA’s subm…
