10 October 2024

David McBride and the AMC

The fact that Australian Army war crimes whistleblower David McBride has been granted a chance to appeal against his five years and eight months sentence at the dreadful Alexander Maconochie Centre federal prison in Canberra is long overdue. It is important to understand that this occurred partly because of the tireless efforts of Professor Ross Fitzgerald and other key supporters who continued to reveal the inhumane conditions that Mr McBride was facing. In a number of articles, Prof Fitzgerald also documented in detail, with first person corroboration, deeply disturbing revelations about the terrible treatment of other prisoners at the...

5 August 2022

Judges are generally Anglo-Celtic and speak only English

The Australian Law Reform Commissions report, Without Fear or Favour: Judicial Impartiality and the Law on Bias, tabled in federal parliament yesterday makes some important recommendations on appointments of judicial officers and the importance of diversity in that process, which should be road tested in the context of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) because that quasi-judicial tribunal has had its perceived objectivity undermined by years of abuse of Coalition government which used it as a vehicle for rewarding its political friends.