Restorative justice is a growing trend worldwide, but the concept needs better definition, more targeted use, better reporting and support from governments, Auneesh Kishore writes. His internship report, a joint undertaking with CLA and the Law Faculty…
In April, it will be two decades since the final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was released. Eleven volumes, 5036 pages of evidence, 339 recommendations…but 20 years on, Indigenous Australians are being locked up a…
Indigenous Australians are being locked away throughout Australia in what is the latest national disgrace. Attorney-General Rober McClelland has revealed figures which show the imprisonment rate over a decade for Indigenous Australias is up 51%, 11 time…
The Gillard Government’s proposal to hold a referendum with a view to recognising Indigenous Australians in the Constitution will produce nothing substantive or useful, scholar and author Dr Bede Harris says. The move gives ‘the appearance of doing the…
Indigenous lawyers and law students gathered at an important national conference recently, with some help from CLA. The range and depth of issues facing the Indigenous community was remarkable, as was the quality of the speakers, CLA President Dr Kristin…
The latest statistics on the health of Indigenous Australians continue to question when will we learn as a nation to do better? Aboriginal children born these past few years are in for a tougher, sicker, shorter life than other Australians, Keith McEwan…
Every police patrol in the NT will carry at least one stun gun by Christmas, with 100 new weapons taking the NT Police total to 230. In 2009, Kwementyaye Rubuntja, 39, died from heart failure after being stunned twice in Alice Springs. The NT coroner fou…
Despite adequate resources and general goodwill, ‘significant improvement’ continues to elude Indigenous Australians, even in the national capital, Aboriginal Justice leader Brendan Church writes. He provides a 10-point list of ways improvement is possib…
Editor, West Australian: I respond to your report ‘Frustrated DPP sees flaws in quality of police probe’ 29 June 2010, p7.
I have read Coroner Alastair Hope’s report on Aborigine elder Mr Ward’s death in custody, in the back of a prison transfer van,…
The troubled island, off the Queensland coast near Townsville, started life as a penal colony for dozens of different Aboriginal groups a century ago. Is it still a purgatory for its people in a paradise-like environment? Keith McEwan tried to visit to s…