Ideological but illogical, inefficient and expensive…words that sum up how the Australian Government buys in its legal expertise, Ernst Willheim says in analysing the recently-released Legal Services Procurement Report. The report has some excellent re…
ALRC tells governmentAustralia looks likely to get a new form of major investigation – the Official Inquiry – as a second tier to the existing Royal Commission system, after the Australian Law Reform Commission table its report No 111, ‘Making Inquiries’. The ALRC has ma…
Authorities should stop pursuing former Customs officer Allan Kessing, who blew the whistle on major securityy lapses at Sydney Airport. He deserves a reward rather than a conviction. The treatment of Kessing shows how governments treat the public’s righ…
The auditor hints at significant reservations about the appropriateness of the ACT Policing annual report, and on how expenditure of about $122m is accounted for. As well, the report contains some hard-to-reconcile figures. The ACT Legislative Assembly n…
CLA has launched a campaign to stop the Rudd Government imposting mandatoring internet filtering – censorship – on adult Australians’ access to the internet. The campaign consists of a new website – http://www.censorfree.com.au/ – and a series of eve…
Over just four days in April 2006, two young men died while while being restrained by WA Police (WAPOL) in Perth. At the inquests, the coronial service recommended changes that might avoid such deaths. CLA is monitoring their implementation, which so far…
Human Rights First has released a seminal study of the use of ‘coerced evidence’ by the US Administration to prosecute terrorists. This 72-page publication, meticulously footnoted, gives chapter and verse on where and how America has gone wrong in its bl…
28 Sep 07:The ACT Policing annual report for 2006-7 shows the force improved its performance in some areas during the year, but continues to fail in others. As well, ACT Policing still refuses to operate formally under Public Interest Disclosure laws, Te…
Police Minister Corbell is yet again trying to ‘spin’ the poor performance of ACT Policing and the level of complaints made against it last financial year (Ombudsman reports 17pc rise in police complaints -Canberra Times 26 Sep).
He attributes the 17…
The contract between the ACT Government and the AFP to deliver police services in 2007-8 has jumped to $117.3m, up $19.4m. But performance targets have been either dropped this year or tweaked so that police accountabliity is reduced significantly. CLA…