Andrew L. Urban.
“Parole should be a pathway to reintegration, not a way of continuing to impose punishment. When parole conditions silence people or limit their freedom of expression, they violate basic human rights and increase the risk of re-incarceration,” says Sarah Schwartz Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, which is spearheading the challenge. The Supreme Court hearing is now scheduled for Tuesday 15 September, 2026 at 2.15 pm. Continue reading
The judge who dissented at her appeal and would have quashed her conviction, Justice Estcourt AM, fell ill and was unable to attend court this morning, resulting in the cancellation of the hearing where the Melbourne based Human Rights Law Centre was to challenge the Parole Board’s additional restriction on Sue Neill-Fraser’s parole conditions, preventing her claiming her innocence. Garry Stannus reports. Continue reading
The judge in the Erin Patterson trial was so concerned about whether the jury had been protected from outside influence during its deliberations that he instructed authorities to try to preserve CCTV from the regional hotel where jurors were sequestered for six days.
What happened when the 12-person jury was sequestered in the same Gippsland hotel alongside police, prosecutors and media in July 2025 has become a central point in Patterson’s appeal against conviction for three murders and one attempted murder from the now infamous death cap mushroom lunch.
Just days before the August 31 Supreme Court hearing a challenge by the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) to an extra bail restriction imposed on Sue Neill-Fraser in April 2025 preventing her claiming her innocence, the Tasmanian Parole Board has removed that condition. Continue reading
LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
Dear Sir, I caught the news coverage of that horrific youth assault in Logan recently and was just utterly disgusted by it—especially the fact that they all walked out on bail, and the weak response to the girl who filmed the whole thing. It really stuck with me. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
What an exposé! Chris Merritt shows how a judge’s own words provide a rare and distressing insight into how this judge perceives the great public policy issue of our time: antisemitism and hatred of Israel. The judge’s ruling determined that Mohammed Farhat should not be subject to an extended supervision order when he completes his prison sentence for offences committed in a Jewish suburb of Sydney. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
Decency deficiency is a parliamentary disease. Symptoms include abysmal behaviour by the Mean Girls and Bastard Boys towards Linda Reynolds and Fiona Brown and the refusal to apologise for it, while now grudgingly paying out $1.48 million to Brown after lengthy legal battles, in the continuing Brittany Higgins / Bruce Lehrmann saga. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
Sixteen years ago on August 20 Sue Neill-Fraser was arrested at her home in Hobart for the murder of her partner, Bob Chappell, supposedly on their yacht Four Winds. A year later in 2010 Sue was tried, convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison, of which she served 13 before being released on parole. But as we all know, she is not guilty. It’s an open sore on Tasmania’s legal system. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban
It took 16 years to put Paul Charlton before a jury for the murder of his girlfriend, Joanne Howell. Just before the trial, he was kidnapped, taken into the bush, bashed and warned to plead guilty. The Herald Sun reported it, police took statements but the alleged thugs were never found. He pleaded not guilty. Emails to us from his partner Linda Barry (before a lapse in our communications) add some flesh to the bare bones of the time line. And there’s more to come on this story… Continue reading
In April 2026, Nick Feik, Michelle Fahy and Elizabeth Minter published the results of their investigation into the National Anti-Corruption Commission in The Point.* and find that the NACC’s three current deputy commissioners as a group represent the least qualified combination of deputies permitted under the NACC Act. For example, Deputy Commissioner Nicole Rose, the delegated decision maker who decided not to investigate the Robodebt Six, has a diploma of hotel management as her highest academic qualification. Continue reading