news
law & crime
law & crime January 24, 2026
The making of a tobacco warlord
The arrest of Kazem Hamad in Iraq is welcomed by Australian authorities, although the illicit tobacco trade that built his brutal empire shows no sign of waning.
law & crime January 10, 2026
What is missing from the Epstein files?
The heavily, if poorly, redacted Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice have flouted an Act of congress that demands all offenders be revealed.
law & crime December 20, 2025
Youth crime is ‘not in a crisis’
The new National Children’s Commissioner cites among her top concerns an increasingly draconian criminal justice system and improvements to the youth social media ban.
law & crime December 20, 2025
How Higgins’s testimony defeated Lehrmann’s appeal
As Brittany Higgins faces the irony that she and her attacker will likely both be bankrupted, her inner circle reflects on how her evidence decided Bruce Lehrmann’s latest appeal.
indigenous affairs December 13, 2025
‘Increasing failure’: First Nations deaths in custody at record levels
More than three decades after the royal commission, calls are growing for the government to finally implement its recommendations, to stop the rising number of preventable deaths.
law & crime December 6, 2025
Victorian AG admits youth crime laws violate human rights charter
This week the Victorian government passed youth crime laws that will see children face adult courts and sentencing – reforms the attorney-general admits are incompatible with the human rights charter.
international relations November 29, 2025
Australia’s crude Russian oil secret
A shadowy network of ‘dark fleets’ is allowing Russia’s oil export market to escape sanction and threatens to undo any of the good Australia has done in supplying military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
north america November 22, 2025
Trump’s MAGA rift over the Epstein files
The US president has signed legislation to release all Epstein case files, but it’s unclear if this win for the abused will reveal any more about the paedophile’s powerful allies.
immigration November 15, 2025
Life as a Home Affairs whistleblower: ‘I’m just falling over’
Four years ago, Home Affairs assistant secretary Derek Elias attempted to report corruption in offshore contracts – the department’s response has left him mentally unwell and in financial turmoil.
law & crime November 8, 2025
One simple way to lift children out of poverty
More than 40 per cent of children in single-parent households live in poverty in Australia. Enforcing child support payments would go a long way towards fixing the problem.
indigenous affairs October 25, 2025
As NSW records its highest yearly number of Indigenous deaths in custody, a Victorian judge recalls one man who died in prison 18 years after he was eligible for release.
