Category: Politics
  • Alex Somers, COVID-19, Health, Politics

The 21st Century Trolley Problem

In the fourth century BC, the Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, first ascribed the title "ethics" to the rational study of how humans should best live their lives. He considered that discourse to be related to, but in essential tension with, the pursuit of politics, in that the former concerned the welfare of the individual, while the latter concentrated on the interests of the state. 
  • Alex Somers, Politics, Social Media, Technology

Breaking The Internet

On 25 February 2021, the Federal Senate passed the Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Media Bargaining Code) Bill 2021, (“the Code”), a controversial new law requiring certain digital platforms to pay a negotiated fee to eligible Australian news media businesses for the use of their digital content. Whilst many have praised the Code for standing up to omnipotent tech companies in the noble pursuit of fair market practices, others, including the tech companies themselves, have accused Australia of trying to break the internet.
  • Health, Navrinder Sathar, Politics

To Jab or Not To Jab

We finally have vaccines for COVID-19. Australia is set to roll out its first batch, to the priority population - aged and disability care residents and workers, front line health workers and quarantine and border staff – in the coming weeks. The question is, how do we make sure they take it?
  • Politics, Privacy, Technology

To D or Not To D

Last week was Privacy Awareness Week, which is a curious irony, given the current dilemma faced by millions of Australians – to download or not to download the Federal government's CovidSafe App.
  • Dispute Resolution, Litigation, Navrinder Sathar, Opinion, Politics

People Power

For the past couple of months, I have been receiving messages and calls from concerned relatives and friends back home in Malaysia wanting to know whether I have been affected by the recent bushfires. Thankfully, like most Gold Coasters, I wasn’t physically confronted by the crisis,  but of course we have all been touched by the devastating news of loss and destruction suffered by so many around us. It is awful to think the fires have claimed lives, destroyed homes, impacted at least a billion animals, and laid to waste more than 25 million acres of land.
  • Chris Nyst, Opinion, Politics, Privacy

A Right To Know

Don’t you sometimes miss the good, old-fashioned Moral High Ground? As a post-war baby, the world I was born into seemed a brave and righteous one. Our fathers had just fought and died to free us all from fascism and oppression. The world had paid a terrible price, but it was all worth it.  In the end we won, and the Bad Guys lost.
  • Chris Nyst, Criminal Law, International, Opinion, Politics

Ten Guilty Witches

In February 1692, in a secluded village in the isolated British American colony of Massachusetts, 9-year-old Betty Parris and her 11-year-old cousin Abigail Williams, began to behave very strangely indeed. It seems they had recently taken to screaming, ranting and raving, throwing objects hither and thither, making weird noises, and generally behaving in a way the local reverend described as “beyond the power of epileptic fits or natural disease to effect.” When other young females in the same village started to exhibit similarly disturbing symptoms, the good folk of Salem quickly concluded there was witchcraft at work in their town, and decided it was time to take action.
  • Criminal Law, Litigation, Politics

Old School Injustice

A generation ago, corporal punishment at school was commonplace. Canings and strappings that would now turn school mums like me apoplectic were once considered a routine and acceptable means of enforcing discipline and taming the unruly child.
  • Brendan Nyst, Dispute Resolution, Litigation, Politics

Politics, Sex and Religion

It’s often said one should never discuss politics, sex or religion at a dinner party. The latest news out of the Wonderful World of the Public Service certainly seems to attest to the wisdom of that simple sentiment.
  • Human Rights, Jonathan Nyst, Politics

A Very Good Start

The late great Nelson Mandela served 27 years in prison for his opposition to the apartheid system of racial segregation in South Africa. When he was finally released from custody in 1990, he famously said "To deny a person their human rights is to challenge their very humanity."
  • Chris Nyst, International, Opinion, Politics

In The Company Of Heroes

On 11 November 1918, at the French town of Compiegne, high-ranking officers of the Entente, the coalition that opposed the Central Powers of Germany, Austro-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria during World War 1, signed an armistice with Germany, ceasing all hostilities on the Western Front. At eleven o’clock on that morning - the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month - the guns finally fell silent, after four long years of unprecedented slaughter. The first global war had left an estimated 40 million casualties, including over 200,000 young Australians killed or wounded in action. It became known as “The War to End All Wars.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
  • Brendan Nyst, Dispute Resolution, International, Litigation, Politics

Stormy Clouds

Anyone who has been following US domestic politics over the past 12 months will be aware of the fascinating legal storm clouds brewing over the Leader of the Free World, one Mr Donald J Trump.