Almost every major News Limited masthead has all given over their front pages today to what is essentially an unpaid advertisement for the police forces.
Articles by Greg Barns 
Prisoners take drugs and have sex. Shock.
Crikey Subscriber / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 17 November 2009 / 7
To those familiar with the criminal justice system, the revelations in today’s Age about drug abuse and sex in Victoria’’s womens’ prison will come as no surprise.
Why Karadzic is not getting a fair trial
Crikey / Greg Barns / Friday, 6 November 2009 / 8
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic’s plea to be allowed more time to prepare his defence against serious of charges, including two counts of genocide, is in fact an entirely legitimate one.
Drugs expert shown the door for disagreeing with government
Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 3 November 2009 / 13
The UK’s most prominent drugs expert has been kicked off a drugs advisory board for disagreeing with the government’s view that cannabis should be classified as a lethal drug.
The front page is no place to judge a terror trial
Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 27 October 2009 / 7
This morning dodgy pictures and quotes of Australian terror suspects were splashed across the front pages of The Age and Herald Sun. Is it time to regulate the way media report criminal proceedings where the subject matter is terrorism?
Free markets means free movement of labour
Crikey / Greg Barns / Friday, 23 October 2009
Asylum seekers risking their lives on leaky boats and enduring intolerably harsh conditions in makeshift camps, are a vital ingredient in the supply of labour for the skills shortage ridden Australian economy.
Why televising the Patel case is a recipe for disaster
Crikey / Greg Barns / Friday, 16 October 2009
Televising what happens in a courtroom is a brilliant idea for a range of reasons, but the case involving Dr Jayant Patel in Queensland is an unsuitable guinea pig.
MSO left without an Oleg to stand on
Crikey / Greg Barns / Thursday, 15 October 2009
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra board and management are not smart. They have succumbed to the markets and salespeople who care little for the quality of music, instead focusing on revenue.
It’s chicken Kev when it comes to asylum seekers
Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Post-Malcolm Fraser, there has been something grossly immoral about Australian government attitudes towards asylum seekers and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is showing that he, too, is not immune from this trait.
Brennan: we want human rights protection
Crikey / Greg Barns / Thursday, 8 October 2009
The human rights ball is now with the government, with the core message of the Brennan Committee’s report on human rights indicating that Australians want better human rights protection.
Rann’s happy family pics care of The Advertiser
Crikey / Greg Barns / Wednesday, 7 October 2009
The idea of today’s breathtaking act of media manipulation in The Advertiser is to take the heat off Mr Rann over a messy story involving the Premier, a man who allegedly attacked him last week at a function and the man’s former wife.
NSW prison operator has a very chequered past
Crikey / Greg Barns / Friday, 2 October 2009
The New South Wales government has allowed the GEO Group to take over Sydney’s Parklea prison, despite the company’s questionable history.
Could the Wilderness Society lose its charity status?
Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 29 September 2009
According to a ruling by the Federal Court, Aid/Watch is not a charity for the purposes of tax laws in Australia, due to its focus on campaigning. Is the Wilderness Society really so different?
Justice in the balance … bank balance, that is
Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Despite decades of lip service from governments and the legal community, the price of justice is still prohibitively expensive for most Australians.
Dupas can get a fair trial. On Mars.
Crikey / Greg Barns / Friday, 18 September 2009
The treatment of criminal investigations and proceedings by elements of the media in this country has now become so sensational that it is getting harder and harder for people to get a fair trial.
Justice on the cheap could be coming
Crikey / Greg Barns / Monday, 14 September 2009
Small groups suing corporate behemoths could benefit from a recent NSW court ruling, with capped fees and easier access.
Judith Troeth one of the last of the reasonable members of the coalition
Crikey / Greg Barns / Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Yesterday Judith Troeth spoke eloquently about the need for the Liberal Party to come to terms with the damage it did to thousands of people who sought asylum in this country, a contrasting view to most of her colleagues.
Productivity Commission owes nothing to anyone — that’s why we need it
Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 8 September 2009
If it were not for the foresight of Paul Keating in developing the Productivity Commission in 1987, the Australian economy would still be mired in protectionist self-interest.
Court ruling: hope for detainees in the land of the free
Crikey / Greg Barns / Monday, 7 September 2009
The Bush Administration’s secretive arrests of Arab-Americans and Muslims after 9/11 doesn’t get much airplay, but that may be about to change.
Official: Taser guns can and do kill
Crikey / Greg Barns / Friday, 4 September 2009
So it’s official: Taser guns can and do kill. They’re used more often than the media and law enforcement agencies report, and people are dying or suffering long-term injury as a result.
Racial tolerance: is Canada a better option than Australia?
Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 1 September 2009
When it comes to convincing Indian students that they are safe to study in Australia, won’t be racially abused, and can do something about it if it does happen, we should look to Canada.
Bill of Rights: John Howard v Anthony Mason
Crikey / Greg Barns / Thursday, 27 August 2009
It is extraordinary that John Howard should be given any credibility when it comes to criticising judicial protection of rights.
Malcolm Turnbull, my part in his Liberal conversion
Crikey / Greg Barns / Wednesday, 26 August 2009
The Sunday Telegraph’s “exclusive” on Malcolm Turnbull’s flirtations with the Labor Party in the late ’90s was anything but, writes Greg Barns.
Tasmania tries the luck of the Irish, cashes up call centre
Crikey / Greg Barns / Monday, 24 August 2009
Mr Bartlett, facing diving opinion polls and a general election early next year, will hand over $3.5 million of Tasmanian taxpayers’ money to Vodafone so that it retains its call centre near Hobart.
Putting self-help groups under the microscope
Crikey / Greg Barns / Thursday, 20 August 2009
Self-help courses might be popular, but occasionally they can also be legally controversial, such as the Sydney inquest into the death of 34-year-old Rebekah Lawrence is revealing.
