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Law & Justice

№ 3 in Wading through greenwashing

Bingo still polluting Sydney's West - and how a previous audit revealed landfill problems

The NSW EPA ordered Bingo Industries to install a gas plant to remove unhealthy hydrogen sulphide odours. Two gas flares were lit but the odours continue. Western Sydney residents, backed by local Labor MPs, are calling on the EPA to close the plant down. In this blog post, I reveal long term weaknesses in the landfill's environmental record, management and regulation.

Thirty years on: How well has Australian media covered deaths in custody?

Last month, the failure of Australian governments to implement the 339 recommendations of the 1991 Royal commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report was a major story in parts of the Australian media. This failure should be no surprise because by 1995, the implementation of the Royal Commission recommendations for change was already described as a 'tragic farce'. In this post, I explore the media's contribution to that failure and signs of both hope and concern thirty years after the Royal Commission.

Remembering Juanita Nielsen

In July 1975, Kings Cross anti-development campaigner Juanita Nielsen was disappeared. She was murdered as a result of her opposition to the development of Victoria Street. This post includes some shots of her newspaper and two others that were produced in protest against her disappearance.

Who is responsible for asylum seekers on Manus? Terrifying Evacuation.

There has been an earthquake in the Pacific which has killed people in the Solomom Islands. I heard on the news that there was a tsunami warning for PNG. It did cross my mind to wonder if the Australian, PNG or Nauruan governments had given any thought to the extra responsibility of caring for asylum seekers if a natural disaster should occur on Manus Island in PNG or Nauru.

Asylum Seekers protest against indefinite detention on Nauru

Earlier in the year, I prepared a timeline covering the events for the period between 2001 and 2007 during which the Australian coalition government locked-up people seeking asylum on the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru, 4000 kilometres away from Australia. I prepared the timeline because I was upset by the way the Australian media failed to inform the public about the history of detention on Nauru at the time when the Gillard Labor government decided to restart the so-called Pacific Solution by opening detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island in PNG.  After all, people who are eighteen now were still in junior high school when the earlier events occurred. This lack of backgrounding by the media makes it easier for politicians to mislead the public. By presenting the news in a very narrow frame, significant issues are made invisible. 

Roseanne Beckett versus NSW DPP

It's 22 years since the then NSW Detective Peter Thomas led a group of police who raided Roseanne Catt's house in Taree. He then charged her with a number of charges including assault and attempted poison of her then husband Barry Catt. After a four months trial, in 1991, she was convicted of eight offences. Roseanne ( who now used the name Beckett) spent the next ten years in prison but was released after the media and new witnesses raised fresh evidence and questions about whether there had been a miscarriage of justice. A NSW Supreme Court Inquiry later found that the key prosecution witnesses, including Thomas, had conspired against her. The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal later acquitted her of the attempted poisoning charge and dismissed a number of other charges. Two convictions remain. Today, Roseanne Beckett's malicious prosecution case begins in the NSW Supreme Court. I've followed this case for 11 years for Sydney Morning Herald. Here is my last report. will be following the case with twitters, posts and stories.