Law Report

Associate Professor Catherine Kemp, a law and tech policy leader, outlines legal and privacy concerns with facial recognition. Alvi Chowdhury, a software engineer wrongly arrested after a match, shares his personal account. They discuss wrongful arrests, racial bias and error rates, retailers' use of real-time systems, failures in notification and oversight, and calls for stronger limits and human review.

Rebecca Ananian-Welsh, a University of Queensland professor in national security and constitutional law, breaks down a High Court clash over government monitoring powers. She explains how ankle bracelets and curfews were judged punitive, the legal tug-of-war over preventive controls, and the broader consequences for released immigration detainees and government responses.

Associate Professor Jason Bosland, a law academic focused on suppression orders and open justice, and Michael Bachelard, an investigative journalist and Gold Walkley winner, discuss whether Victoria’s courts are issuing too many suppression orders. They examine flawed comparative statistics, the Silvani mental-health suppression controversy, proposed legal tweaks, and the idea of an open-justice advocate.

What arguments and information should courts be hearing when they are sentencing an offender? In April, a tool to assist defence lawyers and judges will go national.

Anthony Whealy, former NSW Court of Appeal judge and anti‑corruption commissioner, offers a concise legal perspective. He unpacks the Federal Court decision on Star Entertainment executives and why two senior figures were found to have breached duties. He discusses the limits of the ruling for non‑executive directors, board information flow, AI and board packs, and likely civil penalties to follow.

The Law Report is shining a light on claims or disaster chasers who approach people whose homes have been damaged by a severe weather event.

Two former family law judges sit down with Damien Carrick to revisit a time before no-fault divorce, when unhappy spouses often employed private detectives to prove adultery. 

Queensland has introduced a bill to ban the slogans "from the river to the sea" and "globalise the intifada". Western Australia wants to give police the power to refuse a protest permit if a public event is deemed likely to promote hate. It comes after New South Wales imposed tight restrictions on the Sydney protest against the visit of Israel's president Isaac Herzog.

The Law Report speaks to Richard Hermer, attorney general for England and Wales, who was in Australia recently with a message centred on upholding the rule of law. And why do individuals and corporations donate to political parties? 

Can artificial intelligence reveal the assumptions judges make? Or help lawyers and litigants to identify appeal arguments?