RLC in the media

Ongoing public scrutiny is shedding much needed light on the highly invasive policing practice of strip-searching. But an important issue is being lost in the current debate – race. Samantha Lee in The Sydney Morning Herald

More than half the people on a secretive New South Wales police blacklist are Aboriginal, the state’s top law enforcement officer has revealed. Michael McGowan reports for The Guardian, 11 November 2017.​

A new report has found that the Suspect Target Management Plan (STMP), a NSW police policy that aims to predict and prevent future crime, is instead causing harm and targeting Aboriginal people and those under the age of 25. Laura Morelli​ reports for NITV, 27 October 2017.

On 28 February radio 2SER convened a panel of legal and human rights experts to dissect findings the 18C Inquiry Report, tabled in Parliament on 28 February 2017.

Our solicitors Will Dwyer (Credit & Debt) and Linda Tucker (Employment & Discrimination) talked to Hannah Pett on FBI's Backchat about what the pending federal govt cuts to Community Legal Centres will mean to our clients.

May 2015 - Australasian Lawyer Samantha Woodhill The 2014 Productivity Commission inquiry into access to justice recommended an additional $200m in funding for community legal centres, but the latest federal budget will force centres to endure further funding cuts.

'One of the nation's busiest community legal centres is on the verge of cutting half its staff.'

Community legal centres around Australia will no longer have their budgets slashed by $25.5 million over the next two years, federal Attorney General George Brandis announced last week in a reversal of cuts handed down in the 2014 budget.

Discussion about the proposed Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination legislation has been dominated by a debate on religious organisation exemptions and freedom of speech. There has been public outcry over religious organisations being exempt from the legislation and the ramifications for service provision to some of the most vulnerable people in Australia.

I sympathise with Michael Texilake's concerns (Letters, July 20), but many of his complaints can effectively be dealt with by existing legal remedies where the conduct is threatening or excessive. A more effective short-term solution to "music, burn-outs, fights and all-night public rampages" may be found in the Summary Offences Act and the Protection of the Environment Operations Act.