Done By Law

In this episode of Done By Law we feature audio from the wonderful seminar ‘Women’s Lived Experience in Decarceration and Carceral Resistance’, held on Monday 24 October 2022 at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne.This evening of discussion, reflections and solutions was hosted by Fitzroy Legal Service and featured the insightful contributions of a number of expert panellists, including practitioners, and women with lived experience of incarceration and the criminal justice system. Panel 1 – Systemic changes required to address women’s over-incarcerationElena Campbell (Moderator) – Centre for Innovative JusticeKaren Fletcher – Flat OutLisa Abbott – TaskForceElena Pappas – LACWMegan Pearce – VLAPanel 2 – Women’s Lived ExperienceNina Storey (Moderator) – Homes Not Prisons, Women Transforming JusticeJacqui Bampton – Women Transforming JusticeSara Stilianos – Homes Not Prisons, Women Transforming JusticeJasmine Barzani – Homes Not PrisonsWe have unfortunately only been able to feature 30 minutes of this jam packed tw

In this show, we are looking at the phenomenon of using foreign judges in Pacific states in light of the constitutional crisis currently faced by the Pacific state of Kiribati, which has sprung from the suspension of a number of foreign judges in recent weeks by the Kiribati government. We will be looking at the Kiribati crisis and international responses to it, and will delve more broadly into the practice of using foreign – or non-citizen – judges and whether and how the nationality of the judges on a domestic court matters.We are joined by an expert in this field, Dr Anna Dziedzic. Anna is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laureate Program in Comparative Constitutional Law at Melbourne Law School. She researches comparative constitutional law and judicial studies, with a particular focus on the Pacific region.Anna holds a PhD from Melbourne Law School, an MA in Human Rights from University College London and a Bachelor of Arts and Law from the Australian National University. She is the author of ‘Foreign Judges

Dylan and Jeremie interview Dr Rachael Burgin, lecturer in criminal justice and criminology at Swinburne Law School and the CEO of Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy (RASARA), and Shaun Ginsbourg, experienced trial and appellate criminal barrister who appears for both the defence and prosecution, and is a member of the Criminal Bar Association. Guests discuss new affirmative consent laws which requires accused persons to demonstrate consent was given under the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) for sexual assault. 

Prior to the recent interest rate increase, there was an alarming number of Victorians that were in mortgage stress. About half (44%) of Victorian households with a mortgage were in mortgage stress in late March 2022. Eight of the top 12 postcodes in Australia experiencing highest numbers of mortgage stress are in Victoria.In this episode, we are exploring what mortgage stress is and what services Mortgage Stress Victoria provides. The guests joining us are Stephanie Tonkin, Director of Operations + Strategy and Yvonne Montfort, a Social Work program manager at Mortgage Stress Victoria.

Indy and Jeremie discuss working with young people and mandatory sentencing schemes with Angus from Westjustice and Tim from YouthlawWEstjustice is a community organisation that provides free legal help to people in the Western suburbs of Melbourne.Youthlaw is Victoria’s state-wide free community legal centre for young people under 25 years of age.

On 10 May 2022, a raft of sex work specific advertising criminal laws were repealed in Victoria. This relaxation of advertising laws is the first set of sex industry law changes following the passage of the Sex Work Decriminalisation Act 2022 in February.Tonight, we are exploring what this change in the law landscape means for sex workers.Joining us here in the studio is Matthew Roberts, Policy Advisor at Sex Work Law Reform Victoria.

In this show we looked at the Living Wonders Legal Intervention. Community legal centre Environmental Justice Australia, on behalf of their client Environment Council of Central Queensland, has submitted 19 reconsideration requests to federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, asking her to reconsider the first stage of the assessment of almost every pending coal and gas proposal and expansion across the country, currently on her desk. These reconsideration requests have been submitted under a rarely used provision of the Commonwealth legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (under section 78A).We were fortunate to be joined by one of the lawyers from Environmental Justice Australia, Brittni Dienhoff. Brittni specialises in climate projects and has worked closely on the Living Wonders legal intervention.

The ASRC (Asylum Seeker Resource Centre) provides services for asylum seekers and refugees, such as access to housing, food banks, clothing drives, healthcare and social work. Jimi Muirhead, a solicitor at the ASRC, joins us tonight to share about what the ASRC does, what rights asylum seekers have and difficulties they face.

Community Legal Centres are independent community organisations that provide free legal services to the public. They exist to enable a strong collective voice for justice and equality, using the law as a tool to achieving this.We are fortunate to be joined by two deeply experienced and dedicated CLC lawyers. The first of these is Linh Cao, Managing Criminal Lawyer at the Law and Advocacy Centre for Women, a CLC designed specifically for women who are in or at risk of entering the criminal justice system.We are also lucky to be joined by Meghan Fitzgerald, who joined Fitzroy Legal Service in 2008 and for a number of years held the role of Manager of Social Action, Policy and Law Reform. In October 2020 she took on a new role of Special Counsel, leading the strategic litigation and campaign work. Meghan also sits on the Board of Harm Reduction Australia.JOIN US to hear all the ins and outs of life as a CLC lawyer!

 In this episode we are looking at Indigenous Legal Judgments, a collection of key legal decisions affecting Indigenous Australians, which have been re-imagined so as to be inclusive of Indigenous people’s stories, historical experience, perspectives and worldviews. The collection was edited by Professor Heather Douglas and Associate Professor Nicole Watson and was published last year. Within the collection, Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars have collaborated to rewrite 16 key legal judgments. Spanning from 1889 to 2017, the judgments reflect the trajectory of Indigenous people’s engagements with Australian law. The collection includes decisions that laid the foundation for the wrongful application of terra nullius and disavowal of native title. Contributors have also challenged narrow judicial interpretations of native title, which have denied recognition to Indigenous people who suffered the prolonged impacts of dispossession. Various authors have shown how judicial officers can use their power to chal

Dylan and Jeremie speak with Glenn and Ben about the Spent Convictions Act and what this means for those in the community with a criminal record.

Indy speaks with Lynda from Women's Legal Service Victoria and Estelle from the Police Accountablity Project about the misidentification of primary aggressors in family violence matters.Monitoring Victoria's Family Violence Reforms: Accurate Identification of the Predominant AggressorWomen's Legal Service VictoriaPolice Accountability Project

Do you use ‘buy now pay later’ services like Afterpay, Zip Pay, Zip Money, Humm, Bundl? Maybe you’ve gotten yourself in a little deeper than you intended. Did you know that the law does not treat these the same way as credit cards? So, you may not have as much legal protection as you imagined. Our guests this week, Tom Abourizk and Claude Von Arx from Consumer Action Law Centre tell us about how the use and regulation of these products could be made better.

Brief synopsis: Tonight we look at the new Sex Work Decriminalisation Bill 2021 (Vic), which marks the most significant development in the sex workers’ rights movement in Victoria to date. Introduction: On 10 February 2022 the Sex Work Decriminalisation Bill 2021 was passed by Victorian Parliament. The new laws replace Victoria’s outdated licensing system, which criminalises consensual adult sex work. It represents the pinnacle of decades of advocacy by sex workers seeking to be treated in the same way as other workers, and will greatly improve the health and safety of workplaces where sex work occurs. Victoria is the fourth jurisdiction in the world to decriminalise sex work.  Guest: Tonight we’re lucky to be joined by Matthew, a sex worker and the Policy Officer at Sex Work Law Reform Victoria. Sex Work Law Reform Victoria is an independent non-partisan volunteer group led by sex workers, lobbying for the full decriminalisation of consensual adult sex work in Victoria. We spoke with Matthew on Done by Law l

For this episode of Done By Law we are joined by Nerita Waight, CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS), to discuss ending Aboriginal deaths in custody and the Victorian Coroner’s recent report on Aboriginal deaths by suicide. We are also lucky to be able to feature audio from VALS' Invasion Day webinar on Friday 21 January 2022, with a star line up including Meriki Onus, Marcus Stewart and Tarneen Onus Williams. Listen to the full webinar and view links to important resources recently produced by VALS here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKLZLQo6Gq0&ab_channel=VictorianAboriginalLegalService 

This week Adnan Choopani speaks to us about his experiences in immigration detention. Chris Breen joins him to discuss the work of Refugee Action Collective.Adnan is an Iranian refugee who faced persecution as an Ahwazi Arab in Iran. He came by boat to Australia when he was 15, he was detained on Nauru, and is now detained in the Park Hotel after being transferred to Australia for medical treatment. Though he has committed no crime, he has spent over 8 years, more than a third of his life, detained by Australia. He is an activist for refugee rights, and a musician.Chris Breen is a long term refugee activist with the Refugee Action Collective. He is a science and maths teacher and an Australian Education Union sub-branch president at his school.https://rac-vic.org/RAC meets every Monday at 6.30pm, currently via Zoom. www.facebook.com/racvic

Image Source: abc.net.au 18/12/2019In this episode, we discuss bail laws in the criminal justice system and how these connect to social inequality, especially in relation to gender and race.Remember the public outcry in recent times about violent men out on bail committing even more violent crimes? The government responded by introducing tougher bail laws. But has this tough approach created the desired effect? Or has something else been the upshot?This episode focusses on the increasing percentage of women, especially First Nations women, being placed in custody and how this phenomenon might be connected to toughening of bails laws.Our special guest is LaTrobe University academic, Emma Russell, who is doing research in this area. 

Our special guest is LaTrobe university law academic Dr Laura Griffin, who is researching human breast milk sharing and the law. Gemma and Su chat with Laura about how women support women by sharing breast milk, and what the legal system makes of this.