Amid the babble of media speculation and deafening silence of suppression orders surrounding the death of a prisoner at Barwon Prison this week, you may have missed the more significant news (in a lasting sense, at least) that the Commonwealth government have decided against a Federal Bill of Rights.While there's a promise to review it …
Tag: legislation
Providing police recordings allowed or not?
Dr Manhattan Edit: There were practical problems with the breadth of the original legislation, and it has no undergone a nip-and-tuck in the Justice Legislation Further Amendment Bill 2010. The Explanatory Memo to this omnibus legislation can be found here.Last year in Going Digital my colleague discussed what is now the Justice Legislation Miscellaneous Amendments …
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The meaning of unavailable
Edit: As Jeremy points out below, the Court of Appeal considered the meaning of unavailable for the first time in R v Darmody [2010] VSCA 41, discussed here. Though not specifically considering the (g) provision, the Court did outline some considerations to be taken into account, describing it as 'a balancing act'.Section 65 of the …
Legislation Watch: a fistful of bills
Edit: In fact, Mirko Bagaric has been proved prescient as the new (2011) government are in the process of abolishing home detention and suspended sentences.Some major pieces of legislation have passed through the Victorian parliament in the last couple of years. While the autumn sitting won't bring change on that same scale, the passage of …
A fool for a client …
Whatever the general rule of puttage might be (see The recent history of Browne v Dunn, above), a specific prohibition on the accused giving (or adducing) evidence now exists at s 358 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009. Division 4 of Part 8.2 of the Act prohibits an unrepresented accused from personally cross-examining a protected …