115 Results

Janet Albrechtsen might have a point — Labor’s draft anti-discrimination laws are a worry. The battle has ideological tents camping in strange places, says Crikey’s man-at-large.

Crikey readers weigh in.

Oral testimony will be central to the Gillard government’s royal commission in child sexual abuse, victims groups say. They’re eagerly awaiting the terms of reference to see if they will all be heard.

A key inquiry into controversial national security reforms like data retention will miss its reporting deadline. And the Attorney-General’s Department only has itself to blame.

Several months after the Attorney-General initiated an inquiry on data retention, we finally got a definition of “data” this week. It’s all a bit of a shambles.

A key member of the parliamentary committee examining new national security proposals around data retention has hit out at the vague nature of Nicola Roxon’s proposals.

The concept of “balance” repeatedly invoked by politicians on national security — while extending the powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, curbing the rights of Australians — is flawed.

Wild claims about cybercrime are a key tool in inflating spending on cybersecurity and expanding the powers of governments, like the latest proposal for two-year data retention.

A major parliamentary inquiry will examine government proposals to significantly extend surveillance powers — including to Twitter and other social media.

After more than two months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, the high-powered Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has agreed to a government reference on a major national security review.

A controversial copyright treaty looks dead in the water after the European parliament rejected it overnight. It’s also in serious trouble here.

Julian Assange’s decision to seek asylum in Ecuador is, in the Australian vernacular, the percentage play.

Nicola Roxon’s efforts to establish a process for expanding national security powers has suffered a hiccup, with the powerful Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security asking her to redraft it.

The government has moved to expand national security powers as we integrate further into America’s War on Terror.

The Better Access program, introduced by the Howard government in 2006 to improve access to treatments for common mental disorders, was controversial before it even began.

What does the new Health Minister Tanya Plibersek think of Nicola Roxon’s promise to halve the prevalence of indigenous smoking by 2018, asks associate professor David Thomas?