Short of cash? Can't get a credit card? Can't get a bank loan? If you believe the ads from a new breed of short-term lenders you simply head for your local pawnshop, or even the internet, borrow the cash and move on. Photo: ABC website.

The case of Melissa Dunn, an Indigenous teenage girl violently arrested in 2012, shows why NSW needs a better approach to police complaints

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.

The Opposition has shifted-up a gear in its application of pre-Budget pressure on Human Services Minister Senator Marise Payne, bringing in a raft of welfare, charity and consumer law groups to detail their current problems with the massive Department of Human Services and its payments systems ahead of a massive $1 billion core technology overhaul.

Shiran Illanperuma, a recent University of Sydney graduate, came to Australia in 2010 from the United Arab Emirates. He finished his studies in Media and Communications last year, and returned to the UAE when his student visa expired. While at USyd, he helped found the Autonomous Collective Against Racism and served as one of the collective’s four inaugural Office-Bearers. Back at home, he’s found steady, albeit trying, work as a reporter and a junior editor for a health and science journal.

Women's rights advocates have called for an overhaul of the way the Government deals with domestic violence to stop the rising number of women being killed.

Women's rights advocates want a full overhaul of the way governments deal with domestic violence to stop the large numbers of women being killed. So far this year 34 women have been killed in Australia - including two women in New South Wales who were allegedly killed by their partners in the last week. Activists say governments need to prioritise anti-violence programs and give them the funding they need. They say domestic violence tears at the fabric of society.

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

The Redfern Legal Centre says it may be forced to turn away up to 500 vulnerable and disadvantaged clients a year as it faces major cuts in government funding.