The criminal justice system consists of three main parts: (1) Legislative (create laws); (2) adjudication (courts); and (3) corrections (prisons, probation, parole, fines, community service). In a criminal justice system,…
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…
For some years now I have been considering the concept of complicity. What constitutes complicity, how far does it extend, where does responsibility for wrongdoing cease? You can all blame…
Captain Fred Martens, whom I have written extensively about on Blak and Black in the past, was employed as a commercial pilot flying light aircraft within PNG and between PNG…
Invaded by Indonesia in 1961, West Papua is the crisis on Australia’s doorstep. The conflict generated by the usurpation of the former Dutch protectorate is not recognized as anything other…
Indigenous people in Australia are subjected to more aggressive treatment by the criminal justice system compared with other Australians.
Following on from the discussion of belonging and what the Australian flag represents to many Indigenous Australians, this post gives consideration to the current debate about acknowledgement of Australia's Aborigines…
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…
…the threats we face are no longer from known enemies, nations that have fleets or missiles or bombers that we can see come to the United States, nations that can…
Employers have a legal responsibility to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent harassment and discrimination occurring in the workplace. Employers may also be held ‘vicariously liable’ for the actions of their…
On 18 January 2012 the Solomon Star reported that RAMSI apologist and the former Solomon Islands Finance Minister and Member of Parliament for West New Georgia and Vona Vona, Peter…
Today’s news article that Dr. Charlie Teo addressed racism as part of his speech to the Australia Day Council has raised hackles within the local community. Andrew Bolt and Steve…
Following is a response to the statement published by Ernst & Young. People with things to hide generally sneak around, aiming to placate those who can advance their situation. They…
The following statement published by Ernst & Young on their website and reported on the professional accounting and recruitment site Big4 has come to my attention.The following is a screen shot…
A lot of noise is made about ‘closing the gap’ between Indigenous Australians and their non-Indigenous counterparts. There are so many factors to address; no one remedy is going to…
There’s been significant debate in the past year about the introduction of ethics classes in public schools in New South Wales. The St James Ethics Centre was tasked with developing…
“Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex Australians are part of our community we’re not nameless, faceless people who live on the margins of society. We deserve the respect and the…
'Poetry, like the law, is a fiction’, wrote William Hazlitt in a critical essay of 1816. Hazlitt the critic took as his subject all aspects of his society’s culture, including…
Dear Creative_Canberran, Please forgive my tardiness in responding to your racist, defamatory and provocative insights into my research and writing abilities. No, your infantile rant on RiotAct has not escaped…
The ACT Government isn’t so much corrupt as it is immoral – Senior ACT Public Servant I had lunch in Canberra yesterday with Paul, a former colleague from my public…