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An ‘Ethics Commissioner’ without ethics: welcome to Australia

Yesterday, Thursday I received a phone call from Captain Fred Martens, the man who spent a 1,000 days in jail, having been wrongly convicted of an offence under Australia’s Child…

20 Comments
March 9, 2012
Accountability / Asia-Pacific / Australian Federal Police / Commonwealth Government / Corruption / Democracy / Discrimination/Racism / Equality / Government / International Law / Julian Moti / Justice / Law / Law Enforcement / PNG / RAMSI / Rule of Law / Solomon Islands

Lost Sovereignty; a disgraced judge and a kidnapped Attorney-General

Carl Schmitt’s Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty is both famous and obscure. A twentieth-century political theory, containing two canonical sentences: "Sovereign is he who decides on…

1 Comment
January 31, 2012
ACT Government / Australian Defence Force / Australian Federal Police / Commonwealth Government / Commonwealth Ombudsman / Corporate profit / Corporate responsibility / Corruption / Discrimination/Racism / Ernst & Young / Former Commissioner / Government / Human Rights / Law Enforcement / Refugee Policy / Refugees / Respect / Rule of Law

Ernst & Young: A vehicle for hiding corruption in Canberra

There is no question about racism being a profound form of ignorance, but when it becomes something that informs employment decisions by one of the world’s biggest accounting firms, Ernst…

24 Comments
September 26, 2011
Accountability / Arc of instability / Asia-Pacific / Australian Defence Force / Australian Federal Police / Commonwealth Government / Corporate profit / Corruption / Democracy / Discrimination/Racism / Equality / First Nations/Indigenous / Government / Human Rights / Hypocrisy / Indonesia / International Law / Law Enforcement / Neo-Colonialism / Pacific Neighbours / PNG / Racism / Rule of Law / Shared humanity / Solomon Islands

Fear and Trembling – Australia’s gutless approach to the genocide in Papua

The following article appeared in Friday’s Jakarta Post: Maj. Gen. Wisnu Bawatenaya has been appointed to become commander of the Indonesian Army Special Forces (Kopassus) replacing Maj. Gen. Lodewijk F…

21 Comments
September 13, 2011
Accountability / ACT Government / Arc of instability / Asia-Pacific / Commonwealth Government / Corruption / Culture / Democracy / Discrimination/Racism / Equality / First Nations/Indigenous / Government / Human Rights / International Law / Law Enforcement / Neo-Colonialism / Pacific Neighbours / PNG / Racism / RAMSI / Respect / Rule of Law / Solomon Islands / Stanhope Government / United Nations

The wisdom of Miles Jordana: Hidden in plain sight

The following is a modified version of an article which first appeared in the Fiji Sun on 12 September, 2011 and which Blak and Black has linked to since publishing…

21 Comments
September 12, 2011
Arc of instability / Asia-Pacific / Commonwealth Government / Corruption / Culture / Democracy / Discrimination / Discrimination/Racism / Equality / Equality of opportunity / First Nations/Indigenous / Government / Human Rights / Hypocrisy / International Law / Julian Moti / Law Enforcement / Neo-Colonialism / Pacific Neighbours / RAMSI / Rule of Law / Shared humanity / Solomon Islands / United Nations

Beware the tolling bell

“Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris” (Now this bell, tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.) I have long loved John Donne’s Meditation XVII; it remains pause for…

12 Comments
September 10, 2011
Accountability / ACT Government / Australian Defence Force / Australian Federal Police / Commonwealth Government / Commonwealth Ombudsman / Corruption / Democracy / Discrimination/Racism / Equality of opportunity / Government / Law Enforcement / Rule of Law

The AFP and whistleblowers, again!

Callahan and colleagues (2002)[i] suggested that organizations must focus on three trust-building tactics – accountability, reliance, and aspiration – to cultivate helpful internal whistleblowing procedures. These principles provide people and…

16 Comments
September 6, 2011
Accountability / ACT Government / Asia-Pacific / Australian Federal Police / Commonwealth Government / Corruption / Discrimination/Racism / First Nations/Indigenous / Fred Martens / Government / Human Rights / Indonesia / Julian Moti / Law Enforcement / Racism / Refugees / SIEV X / Solomon Islands / West Papua

A call for a Royal Commission into the AFP

“A State cannot claim to be operating under the rule of law unless laws are administered fairly, rationally, predictably, consistently and impartially.” (Chief Justice Spigelman, as he then was, in…

31 Comments
August 31, 2011
Accountability / Asia-Pacific / Australian Federal Police / Commonwealth Government / Corruption / Discrimination/Racism / Equality / Government / Law Enforcement / Pacific Neighbours / PNG / Propaganda / RAMSI / Refugees / Rule of Law / Solomon Islands / Stanhope Government

Injustice within Justice

I have borrowed the title from Michael Stolleis' oxymoronically titled book Justice within Injustice which is about, oxymoronically, justice in the Third Reich. After having read Stolleis' essays, in which…

24 Comments
August 16, 2011
Accountability / ACT Government / Asia-Pacific / Australian Defence Force / Australian Federal Police / Commonwealth Government / Corruption / Democracy / Government / Human Rights / Law Enforcement / PNG / RAMSI / Respect / Rule of Law / Solomon Islands / Stanhope Government

AFP corruption and their per diem

In the 1960s Donald Horne observed, "Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck." This observation was followed in the 1990s by Paul Keating when…

22 Comments
August 13, 2011
Arc of instability / Asia-Pacific / Australian Federal Police / Commonwealth Government / Corruption / Democracy / Discrimination/Racism / Equality / First Nations/Indigenous / Government / Law Enforcement / Neo-Colonialism / Pacific Neighbours / RAMSI / Rule of Law

Disguised extradition, Bennett, Tollman and Moti

In 1896 J. B. Moore, with what turned out to be prophetic insight, drew attention to the possibility of the immigration laws of the United States being utilised for the…

15 Comments
August 2, 2011
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No amount of education will ever make us white

The following is a letter I received from a reader of Blak and Black and the Fiji Sun, talking about his experiences as a Pakistani/Australian living in Australia’s Capital, Canberra: Dear…

25 Comments
July 31, 2011
Accountability / ACT Government / Asia-Pacific / Australian Federal Police / Commonwealth Government / Commonwealth Ombudsman / Corruption / Discrimination/Racism / First Nations/Indigenous / Government / Indonesia / Law Enforcement / Neo-Colonialism / Pacific Neighbours

Gratuitous acts of racism in Australia’s capital, Canberra!

In fact, the worst offender of institutionalised discrimination and marginalisation of Aboriginal people is the government.—Neil Gillespie, head of the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement Inc, South Australia ('Poor health, racism…

3 Comments
July 6, 2011