When the Australian parliament passed the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2021 (SLAID) in August, research institutes and news media voiced concerns about an erosion of civil liberties—for just a few days. The …
Articles by: "Teagan Westendorf"
US President Joe Biden’s pivot to the Indo-Pacific region has brought announcements of big defence spending by the United States in northern Australia. The US force posture initiatives in the north will involve total spending …
In 1922, German political theorist Carl Schmitt wrote a seminal essay arguing that sovereignty is defined by the power to suspend state law during times of extraordinary threat to national security. The government can then neutralise that …
The Joe Biden administration’s National strategy for countering domestic terrorism, released last month, followed an urgent review of efforts to address what the White House says is ‘the most urgent terrorism threat the United States …
Last week, with little fanfare, Australia’s last six soldiers departed Kabul on a RAAF aircraft. Australia shut up its intelligence and diplomatic presence in Afghanistan. Incredibly, it’s now been reported that Foreign Affairs Minister Marise …
Darwin Harbour and the port facilities along its eastern arm have a long history of disregard, disrepair and haphazard investment and control by successive governments dating back to the close of World War II. There has …
The success of Operation Ironside, led by the Australian Federal Police with a host of international partner agencies, hinged on the use of a messaging app thought by criminals to be encrypted. The numerous arrests …
The federal government’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Bill is no paper tiger. In ending Victoria’s link with China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the Commonwealth has reasserted Australian sovereignty in terms of responsibility and …
Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner recently highlighted an overarching challenge for the territory, and arguably for all of northern Australia—to break the social and economic cycles of severe disadvantage that perpetuate problems for generations. …
The 2014 rap song ‘Move that dope’, by Future, Pharrell Williams, Pusha T and Casino, talks about the push to sell drugs, including crack cocaine, and enjoy the spoils of the trade. Its underlying message …
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller’s suggestion of a sexual consent app has been comprehensively shot down. The only effective use it could have, if admissible in court, would be for an accused rapist to ‘prove’ …
This week saw two significant developments in Australian counterterrorism. Victoria Police arrested two young men and a boy in Melbourne, and charged the two men with planning a terrorist act and one with being a …