Andrew Fraser
Andrew Fraser began his journalistic career in 1979 and has been practising criminal law since 2008.
Andrew's articles (76 total)
The lessons of Long Tan
Sixty years after the Battle of Long Tan, a simple Canberra commemoration offered a more thoughtful kind of remembrance – one that honours the dead on all sides and questions the mythology of victory.
ACT Attorney shows federal Labor how to resist a political pile-on
ACT Attorney-General Tara Cheyne’s measured response to the controversy surrounding Mark Parton offers a rare example of judging private conduct by its impact on public duties rather than its value as political ammunition.
Prosecutors' improper political push for a personal purpose
A collective show of support for NSW DPP Sally Dowling has raised questions about whether senior prosecutors used the authority of public office for a personal and political purpose.
Concentrated power crushing freedom of expression in Cambodia
What an edition of a Siam Reap newspaper reveals about law and politics in Cambodia and constraints on freedom of speech.
Those who endure and a question of priorities
Encounters with two Vietnamese men shaped by war raise an uncomfortable question for Australia’s older, wealthier generation: what are our priorities now?
Hailing Australia's under-appreciated life-saving heroes
Desmond Manderson’s High Time – How Australia changed its mind about illegal drugs, is a social history of Australia's drug policy and a must-read for policymakers.
Lady Justice: the scales, the blindfold and .... the social media post
The ACT Director of Public Prosecutions’ increasingly emotive and promotional social media presence raises broader questions about whether prosecutorial offices should market themselves like modern corporate workplaces.
Shock, horror! An effective parliament in our time?
An ACT Legislative Assembly committee has strengthened proposed sentencing laws by listening to expert evidence and improving the legislation.
The wisdom of David Solomon (plus priceless insights, grace and humour)
David Solomon’s 'Footnotes' reveals the stories behind Australian politics and journalism – including the moments that never made it into print.
ACT justice system on the brink from chronic underfunding
Legal Aid, prosecutors and the courts are all under pressure, raising concerns about fairness, workload and the effective operation of the ACT justice system.
Could old rivalries spur Albanese to act on human rights?
Kevin Rudd had the groundwork, the evidence and the political moment for a Human Rights Act – and still walked away. Anthony Albanese now has the same opportunity, and no obvious excuse not to take it.
Who will prosecute Geoffrey Robertson's peerless plan for peace?
In his new book Geoffrey Robertson argues the UN Security Council can no longer defend democracy and proposes a new alliance of democratic states. The diagnosis is compelling – the path forward far less clear.
Human rights: could Menzies help Albanese see the light?
Australia’s push for a federal Human Rights Act is stalled by political caution and media hostility. The path forward may depend on Coalition support – and reframing the reform as consistent with Liberal tradition.
Best of 2025 - Words or action? Dreyfus and human rights at home
Mark Dreyfus has been appointed Australia’s special envoy on human rights. Is the government prepared to match international advocacy with concrete action at home – by finally legislating a Human Rights Act?
Best of 2025 - Axed AG tells how Labor really changes the Constitution
Despite Labor’s longstanding appetite for constitutional reform, former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus now points to a different path: bold, nation-shaping change without the need for a referendum.
"Go ahead – make my book list": slings and arrows, and Eastwood
Shawn Levy's Clint Eastwood biography captures the contradictions of a screen icon — and the craft behind a career still shaping popular cinema.
Best of 2025 - 'We don't do that in this country': judge slams DPP
An appeal by ACT director of Public Prosecutions, Victoria Engel, SC, has been dismissed by a Full Bench of the ACT Court of Appeal after only three minutes of deliberation.
Best of 2025 - Courts brace for next wave of 'sovereign citizens'
When I wrote about the “Cavalcade of the Cretinous” in February 2022, I thought the anti-vaccination early incarnations of “sovereign citizens” were just a hopeless joke (“Summernats without the sophistication”) that would quietly go away.
Best of 2025 - Malign AI could change Australian election results, says judge
Justice David Mossop of the ACT Supreme Court has issued a call to arms for lawyers generally, and the High Court in particular, to prepare for palpable threats to “a small, naive democracy like Australia”.
Font of all knowledge? Of Rubio, Rupert and playing to type
A curious US culture-war memo about typefaces becomes a sharp lesson in readability, newspaper craft, and how badly those lessons have been forgotten in Australian journalism.
Federal Court dispatches Sofronoff empty-handed
The Federal Court has again shown itself to be a brutal arena for rebuilding reputations. In Justice Walter Sofronoff’s case, the court has backed the Integrity Commission’s conclusion of serious corrupt conduct.
Judge says law still failing to see "deeper truth" of dispossession
An ACT Supreme Court judge has confronted the limits of native title and criminal sentencing, arguing the law still falls short of reckoning with Indigenous dispossession.
Words or action? Dreyfus and human rights at home
Mark Dreyfus has been appointed Australia’s special envoy on human rights. Is the government prepared to match international advocacy with concrete action at home – by finally legislating a Human Rights Act?
Brave ACT shows restorative justice for sex offenders can work
A major Australian Institute of Criminology evaluation shows restorative justice in the ACT has improved victim wellbeing and significantly reduced reoffending in domestic and sexual violence cases.
Axed AG tells how Labor really changes the Constitution
Despite Labor’s longstanding appetite for constitutional reform, former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus now points to a different path: bold, nation-shaping change without the need for a referendum.
This Russian victory really is one for the little guy
The Castle remains good law in Australia. Almost three decades since the battling suburban solicitor Dennis Denuto introduced us all to the high legal concept of “the vibe of the thing”, the High Court has broadly endorsed the classic movie’s basic contention: a man’s home is his castle.
'We don't do that in this country': judge slams DPP
An appeal by ACT director of Public Prosecutions, Victoria Engel, SC, has been dismissed by a Full Bench of the ACT Court of Appeal after only three minutes of deliberation.
DPP speaks out – budget crisis, blackmail or a balking of duty?
ACT director of Public Prosecutions Victoria Engel SC has upped the ante — dangerously so in the view of many in the legal profession — in a very public bid for further funds for her office.
Courts brace for next wave of 'sovereign citizens'
When I wrote about the “Cavalcade of the Cretinous” in February 2022, I thought the anti-vaccination early incarnations of “sovereign citizens” were just a hopeless joke (“Summernats without the sophistication”) that would quietly go away.
Malign AI could change Australian election results, says judge
Justice David Mossop of the ACT Supreme Court has issued a call to arms for lawyers generally, and the High Court in particular, to prepare for palpable threats to “a small, naive democracy like Australia”.
The Russians’ lost plot: will they find serenity or are they dreaming?
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Canberra Theatre. Patrons are advised that, for tonight’s performance of The Castle, the role of Mr Darryl Kerrigan will be played by Mr Vladimir Putin.”
A couple of seats that could go against the anti-Dutton grain
“The people have spoken.” “We have a clear mandate.” Really? In many cases, like the landslides of 1975 and 1996, the above quotes are undoubtedly true. But in others, like 1984 and 1998, I’m not so sure.
Trump versus a young man on a mission
Less than three months into the 48 that the world will have to endure his second presidency, Donald Trump is, on a charitable view, now pretty much a caricature of himself.
Will Walter Sofronoff be prosecuted?
Maybe what Lehrmann Board of Inquiry chair Walter Sofronoff KC did was “serious corrupt conduct”, as the ACT Integrity Commission alleges. Or perhaps that description is “overreach”, as former Law Council of Australia president Arthur Moses SC told The Australian.
Labor goes weak on reform
When I very briefly and greenly worked for two right-wing members of the second Hawke administration, “pissant” was the faction’s put down of choice.
Will bail in Victoria get a battering under Battin?
Our annual trip to Queenscliff is a quaint step back in time: ye olde shoppes and seaside fun from a simpler time.
Just say yes, Minister. It’s prison reform made simple
Many years ago, a number of lawyers lunching with an ACT judicial officer bemoaned their lot as a new Children’s Court Magistrate was rapidly filling the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre with their young clients.
The prescience of Corporal Hijack
A year ago, Mussa Hijazi, a stone-throwing young teenager of the first Intifada who became a long-serving Canberra lawyer, laid out three options on how the conflict in Gaza would end.
Inside out: powerful advocates have judges' ears
The ACT Supreme Court was the scene of two uniquely powerful demonstrations of advocacy on the one evening last week.
War powers reform: no ticker for a no-brainer
Worst of Friends by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain is a simply wonderful book, aimed at “pre-schoolers and up”.
Bar hits out at Chief Justice
The ACT Bar Association has confronted Chief Justice (CJ) Lucy McCallum over her self-admitted controversial statements about juries in sexual-assault trials.
Political void: The end of the Wharf
Forty (40) years ago, the ALP ran its national conference at what was then called Noah’s Lakeside Hotel, with uranium, Timor, taxation, David Combe and south-west Tasmania prominent in discussions. But, who is this meeting up on the dancefloor after the day’s debates and double-crossings?
Clean slate for prison reform
The Canberra community decided on 19 October to remove from its parliament the two most recent ministers for corrections, Mick Gentleman (Labor) and Emma Davidson (Green).
Absence of care: AMC prison a drug “supermarket”; force applied with “regularity”, report staff
The ACT’s prison is run by a clique, with detainee bashings covered up, staff bullied into silence and the library better labelled “a supermarket” where any drug desired was freely available.
Sunlight needed to eradicate prison horrors
Reports of malfeasance involving staff at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, the ACT’s supposedly human-rights-compliant prison, are now too numerous and too frequent to lack substantial veracity.
ACT legal eagles hit out at Chief Justice
The upper echelons of Canberra’s criminal bar are on a collision course with Chief Justice Lucy McCallum over the conduct of sexual-assault trials in the ACT.
How the ACT Govt is making more people vulnerable
The ACT Labor-Greens coalition is widely seen as the most permissive and truly liberal government in the country.
No, Minister. It’s you who should be in court
Even good minds can get criminal justice wrong, but usually for only so long.
Departure of Justice Richard Refshauge: end of an era
It was a particularly technical legal point. The colleague was an experienced trial advocate with a case in which he felt there was a slim plot of fertile ground on which he might be able to appeal. But he just couldn’t quite work out how all the pieces might come together.