The New Australia Card?

Is the Digital Identity card a rehashed attempt to bring in another Australia Card? The idea for the card was raised at the national Tax Summit in 1985 convened by the then Federal Labor government led by Bob Hawke. The card was to amalgamate other government identification systems and act against tax avoidance, and health and Read More …

State Immunity from Commonwealth Legislation: Assessing its Development and the Roles of Sections 106 and 107 of the Commonwealth Constitution

One difficulty for the States with a direct reliance on s 106 is the fact that the continuation of State constitutions in s 106 is said to be ‘subject to’ the Commonwealth Constitution. The heads of legislative power in s 51 are also conferred ‘subject to’ the Commonwealth Constitution but this poses a conundrum: Is s Read More …

The Act of Democide

Democide is a concept proposed by U.S. political scientist Rudolph Rummel to describe “the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or high command.”According to Rummel, this definition covers a wide range of deaths, including forced labor and concentration camp victims; Read More …

Ethical Policing in Victoria.

Acting Senior Sergeant Krystle Mitchell is a sworn member of the Victoria Police in Australia. She has served Victorians for 16 years as a police officer including 6 years at Professional Standards Command – the division responsible for investigating police misconduct, corruption, discrimination and freedom of information, referring investigations to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission Read More …

Are Police employees of the State?

THE EMPLOYMENT STATUS OF POLICE OFFICERS IN AUSTRALIA At common law Australian police do not fall within the employer-employee relationship. This position seems to remain stubbornly persistent despite some cracks in judicial opinion and growing commentator criticism of the failure of the common law to review the status of police. The often quoted authority for Read More …

What is Genocide?

268.3  Genocide by killing A person (the perpetrator) commits an offence if: (a)  the perpetrator causes the death of one or more persons; and (b)  the person or persons belong to a particular national, ethnical, racial or religious group; and (c)  the perpetrator intends to destroy, in whole or in part, that national, ethnical, racial Read More …