A new audit examines the ‘state use of electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence against its citizens’. See how Australia and 51 other countries rank in this comparative analysis by a US data security firm. Rea…
The Australian Federal Police tried to demand a DNA sample from a man as a known ‘sex offender’ because he had a conviction for a minor offence 30 years ago, when he was a 16-year-old juvenile.The man, who was convicted three decades ago for kissin…
Naming guilty drink drivers in the media or online is just an extension of Australia’s system of open and transparent legal processes, CLA says. Drink-drive convictions are increasing as police change from ‘random’ breath testing to targeted testing clos…
A blameless person could go to jail under the new, catch-all ‘bikie’ legislation now operating in two States. The President of the Law Society of South Australia, John Goldberg, explains how easily the oppressive laws could send an innocent man or wom…
In a highly unusual move, the Director of Public Prosecutions in NSW, Nicholas Cowdery, has issued a ‘General Commentary’ which slams the NSW bikie legislation as excessive, calls for better enforcement by police of existing laws (rather than new laws…
Even people accustomed to prosecuting under draconian laws think the special legislation against bikies is over the top. Keith McEwan argues that what is beign done to bikies sounds a big warning bell to people who value traditional civil liberties in Au…
Why did it take six days and citizen journalism to shed light on the death during a G20 protest in London of paper-seller Ian Tomlinson? Nick Davies of The Guardian examines the role of thepolice and the UK’s Independent Police Complaints Commission and…
SCAG, the Attorneys-General dinner and discussion get-together held a couple of times a year, is in danger of disintegrating into farce. This week, the august A-Gs from the rest of Australia should have been counselling SA and NSW to throw out their new,…
What should be the relationship between police and citizens? How should police behave at mass protests? Barrister and former UK Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald asks some pertinent questions, after a death at the G20 protests in London, in t…
SCAG – the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General – is allowing bikies to hijack its work program, CLA believes. SCAG is debating semi-fascist bike club laws from SA and NSW instead of dealing with a priority item on its work program, the massive over-r…