Law & Crime

Bob Hawke’s first act as prime minister in 1983 was to save the Franklin River in Tasmania. In 1987, he over-rode Queensland’s bull-headed premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, to save the Daintree wet tropics. These rainforests faced death by a thousand cuts, from mining, logging and real estate developments. In that way, they were just like Tasmania’s takayna/Tarkine rainforest in 2021.

When Prime Minister Scott Morrison fronted up to the press conference to announce the outcome of Operation Ironside last month, he seemed even more pleased with himself than usual. Hundreds of alleged offenders had been charged and millions of dollars’ worth of drugs had been seized. It was almost as though it was an election year, and Morrison knew that fear mongering and surveillance powers play well with certain voters.

The Ben Roberts-Smith case may be the greatest show in town, yet the consequences for the media defendants cannot be overstated. The future of investigative reporting is held in the balance.

The decision to transfer one of the daughters of the Murugappan family to Perth Children’s Hospital sent shock waves across Australia and abroad. Growing public pressure forced the Australian government to release the whole family into Perth community detention.

In Franz Kafka’s book The Trial the accused, Josef K, manages to arouse the court’s anger by loudly complaining about the absurdity of the proceedings and the accusation itself, if he could only understand it. The book is alternatively macabre and comical – much like the Commonwealth’s case against our own K, Witness K, and his former lawyer, Bernard Collaery.

It’s been almost 20 years since I wrote “Bell’s Theorem”, an essay about Aboriginal art and the Western systems that make it a white business. The essay finished with a simple observation: ‘There is no hope.’

Had Christian Porter carefully considered the sorry history of defamation actions brought by politicians against the media, he may have paused and pondered for longer. While few things are certain in life, in defamation actions all bets are off.

Australia faces a reality where porn has become young people’s choice for sex education – not because it’s a good educator, but because it’s better than what else is on offer. The federal government’s new consent education campaign is exemplary of why this is the case. The campaign is, at best, bizarre, heteronormative and ill informed. At worst it is alienating, infantilising and risks disseminating harmful messaging about sexual violence.

I spent 10 years as a police officer, working in Queensland. My book, Black and Blue, recounts my time in the police as an Aboriginal woman, and my life as a single parent of three brilliant and amazing children. It also documents the racism I was subjected to throughout my career but also everything that led up to that point.

All governments have horror stretches; the Morrison government is certainly no exception, as the past six weeks attest. But it is how governments deal with these political crises that can seal or save their fate. The Americans have a colourful turn of phrase to describe how politicians in similar fixes often resort to ‘putting lipstick on a pig’. In other words, they do not address the underlying problems but rather hope a few cosmetic flourishes will persuade the public they are on to it. So on Monday we had the ‘new look’ Morrison cabinet rolled out. Except it wasn’t.