Media releases

The NSW Government will withdraw and repay more than 23,000 COVID fines, following a successful legal campaign by Redfern Legal Centre and Maurice Blackburn Lawyers.

Years of advocacy, community organising, and relentless efforts by renters, housing advocates, and the NSW network of local Tenants’ Advice and Advocacy Services paved the way for the passing of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill 2024.

Since 2016, NSW Police have conducted an average of over 100 strip searches per year at train stations.

Today the NSW Supreme Court published its reasons in a test case about COVID-19 fines. The decision clarifies the requirements necessary for a fine to be valid, and calls into disrepute all the remaining 29,017 COVID-19 fines that have not been withdrawn.

Redfern Legal Centre (RLC) launches the Police Accountability Dashboard - a groundbreaking tool and the first of its kind in Australia.

The National Justice Project (NJP), Redfern Legal Centre (RLC), Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) are hosting an expert forum, ‘Mental health call outs: who should respond?’ to consider alternatives to the current approach that sends police to be first responders to a mental health crisis.

A trial date has been set by the NSW Supreme Court for the landmark strip search class action that will challenge the legality of strip searches conducted by NSW Police at music festivals over a six-year period.

Another music festival cancellation shows the effect of over-policing on the music festival industry.

Redfern Legal Centre (RLC) has released a new report that reveals over a thousand children (aged 10-17 years) have been strip searched by NSW Police within a seven year period from June 2016 to July 2023. The report written by RLC solicitors, Samantha Lee and Josh Raj -‘The Need for Reform: Strip Searches of Children by NSW Police’ collates data about the number of children strip searched by NSW Police. The data was obtained from NSW Police via access to information law.

Redfern Legal Centre stands with a coalition of Aboriginal and legal organisations that say a secret proposal to tighten NSW bail laws for children would make NSW regional communities more dangerous. Multiple government sources have indicated off the record that a proposal to introduce punitive law and order measures – including changes to bail laws that will result in more children going to jail – may be considered as early as this week.