High Court reviews ‘inexcusable’ relationship between judge and barrister – Lawyers Weekly

The High Court is considering whether to allow an appeal to a Family Court decision after it was disclosed that the judge and a barrister in the matter had a relationship that included “numerous” text messages and meetings over coffee or drinks.

A Perth real estate agent has brought an appeal to the High Court on the grounds of apprehended bias after his lawyers discovered that the opposing side’s barrister Gillian Anderson had been engaging in a “personal relationship” with the now-retired judge, the Honourable John Walters QC, throughout the course of the proceedings.

In dismissing the retrial mid-last year, Justices Steven Strickland and Judy Ryan, who formed the majority, found that the extensive contact between the two parties would not cause a reasonable person to fear that the judge might have been biased.

However, in a dissenting judgement, the Honourable Chief Justice Will Alstergren said it was incumbent on judges and barristers to disclose any contact that could raise a reasonable concern of apprehended bias.

As a result of the case, the Australian Law Reform Commission is reviewing laws in relation to judicial impartiality with an inquiry set to examine whether the law about actual or apprehended bias relating to judicial decision-making is appropriate and sufficient to maintain public confidence in the administration of justice. They are expected to release a consultation paper later this month.

Source: High Court reviews ‘inexcusable’ relationship between judge and barrister – Lawyers Weekly

Gender neutral toilets could be mandatory in ALL workplaces in one Australian state | Daily Mail Online

Gender-neutral toilets could soon become mandatory in all workplaces in one major Australian state. A probe is already underway with WorkSafe in Victoria.

Source: Gender neutral toilets could be mandatory in ALL workplaces in one Australian state | Daily Mail Online

First protests against gender clinic ‘medicalisation’ of youth

Australia has seen its first demonstrations against gender clinics to raise awareness about medicalisation of young people.

Source: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/first-protests-against-gender-clinic-medicalisation-of-youth/news-story/7e5f6a9e9fa4cb80590fbd1c3d36ad16

‘Robbed in the cruellest way’: Family grieves baby lost to murder-suicide

An anti-domestic violence campaigner says the suspected murder-suicide at the Barossa Reservoir highlights the need for more to be done to prevent such tragedies.

Henry Shepherdson, 38, jumped from the Whispering Wall tourist attraction with his nine-month-old daughter Kobi in a baby carrier on Wednesday afternoon.

Police said initial investigations revealed a history of domestic violence between Mr Shepherdson and Kobi’s mother.

Natasha Stott Despoja – the chair of Our Watch, a group working to end violence against women – said South Australians were angry and sad at Kobi’s death and what it said about how women and children were treated unequally in society compared with men.

She said Kobi’s death and that of Kelly Wilkinson in Queensland “exemplify failings in the system”.

“We know that there are regulatory, there are legal failings, there are gaps in the law,” she said.

“There are problems with enforcement, there are problems with women being believed.

“There’s problems with apprehended violence orders being enforced.

Source: ‘Robbed in the cruellest way’: Family grieves baby lost to murder-suicide

Kelly Wilkinson news: Mother-of-three pleaded for help.

Kelly Wilkinson, a 27-year-old mother-of-three, was found dead in her Gold Coast backyard on Tuesday morning after neighbours raised the alarm when they heard shouting.

When police arrived at the home in Spikes Court, Arundel, they found the woman’s burned body in what they described as “a very confronting scene”.

First responders also found Wilkinson’s three children, all under the age of nine, who police say may have witnessed their mother’s death. They are safe and have been taken into care.

Wilkinson’s estranged husband, Brian Earl Johnston, 34, was arrested just two blocks from the Arundel property, suffering burns to his hands.

Johnston, who is currently under police guard at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, has been charged with his wife’s alleged murder and breaching bail conditions.

In an interview with the Gold Coast Bulletin, sister Danielle Carroll alleged that recently: “Kelly said, ‘I am scared for my life, I am scared for my children’s life. We are not safe.'”

“She was saying this to the police over and over and nothing was done. There was no support, there was no safeguard,” she added.

Her sister Natalie Wilkinson agreed, telling 7News: “I would drive her to the police station almost every day to make breaches and reports and still nothing.”

Source: Kelly Wilkinson news: Mother-of-three pleaded for help.

Consent video: Milkshakes bring all the headshakes to the government

After a litany of own goals that led to a crash in its approval ratings from women, the government has doubled down with a ludicrously ham-fisted suite of consent education videos, targeted at year 10 to 12 students.

It’s quite a challenge to get so much so wrong on consent and respectful relationships, but it appears this is one challenge the Morrison government is well able to meet.

The list of failures is long and would be hilarious if this wasn’t so serious.

They include:

  • A boy aiming a speargun into the distance as he sits next to a fearful girl
  • Another boy lifting weights next to a slim girl standing passively in a weight-loss machine
  • Drawing a deeply insulting equivalence between rape and eating tacos
  • Coyly avoiding any mention of sex, as if 16 to 18-year-olds might never have heard of it
  • Not even addressing the concept of consent with students until they’re in year 10, contrary to the advice of almost every expert in the country
  • Disrespectful relationships explained by showing a mean girl smearing a milkshake over the face of a poor, hapless white boy, ignoring all the evidence that shows violence is overwhelmingly committed by men against women
The “tortured metaphors” of milkshakes and tacos have been slammed.
  • A disturbing emphasis on fixing or staying in a relationship (despite the milkshake disrespect) because she’s pretty and has wavy hair and kisses
  • Relating to the youngsters with pinball machines and badminton
  • Videos with sets that look like Play School leftovers
  • The voiceover for the video in the technology section for year 10 to 12 students that sounds like it was recorded for the Play School demographic
  • Commissioning a grandad-professor-from-the-1950s type to do the voiceover about sex and rape – without ever actually mentioning sex or rape
  • The video called “Kiss”, about girls being the conflicted gatekeepers of sex, while boys pursue sex with no conflict or questions.

And that is far from a complete list.

If you follow the links through The Good Society’s website, you . . .  end up on a site called Fight the New Drug.

FTND is a US-based public charity, which claims to have no religious affiliation, despite all its founding members being Mormon and as The Atlantic’s James Hamblin notes, “its facts rely on claims from Mormon author Donald Hilton’s He Restoreth My Soul: Understanding and Breaking the Chemical and Spiritual Chains of Pornography through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”

This is not the only American link. The videos have a strangely American slant.

Source: Consent video: Milkshakes bring all the headshakes to the government

Stop the contagion of violence against women

What would happen if governments approached the other pandemic in our midst – violence against women – with the same level of urgency and leadership?

Violence against women and girls is the most widespread human rights violation in Australia and the world, with approximately one in four having experienced physical and/or sexualised violence by an intimate partner. The most common characteristic shared by survivors is their gender, and people who perpetrate are predominantly male.

Children and young people are frequently overlooked but suffer greatly, with one child a fortnight dying in the context of domestic and family violence (DFV). Many first experience abuse in utero: 1 in 4 women who experience DFV are abused for the first time when pregnant. Stopping the contagion requires that the impact on children is identified and responded to early. Many women separate from abusive partners to protect children, only to find that their children are exposed to unsupervised time with ex-partners who often continue the pattern of abuse, through their child.

Source: Stop the contagion of violence against women

Australia Post: The key moments from Christine Holgate’s Senate inquiry

Former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate’s appearance at the Senate inquiry on Tuesday was nothing short of explosive.

Ms Holgate claims she was unlawfully stood down by the chairman of Australia Post, after the PM told Parliament last year if she refused to stand aside during an investigation into the watches “then she can go”.

Ms Holgate defended her choice of gifts, arguing it was not out of the ordinary for a CEO to give gifts or bonuses to executives who had worked hard. 

She argued she was being treated differently because of her gender. She pointed to “five-star luxury jaunts” to the 2012 Olympics, doled out by her predecessor, as an example of executive spending that was left uncriticised.

Ms Holgate said she also believed she “wasn’t popular” with Mr Di Bartolomeo and ministers because she opposed a confidential business strategy review conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, which argued Australia Post should be privatised. 

Source: Australia Post: The key moments from Christine Holgate’s Senate inquiry

Four years of Women Write Wiki – Wikimedia Australia

Kerr, who is the Principal Solicitor of the Feminist Legal Clinic in Sydney, joined forces with technologist and general polymath Spider Redgold to apply for a grant to found a women’s Wikipedia editing group. Supported by Create NSW through the NSW Writers Centre (now Writing NSW) in 2017, the Women Write Wiki (WWW) group was born.

By March 2021, the group was celebrating four years of editing, activism and friendship, during which they estimate they’ve now created over 300 new pages on Australian and New Zealand women. Their efforts form part of growing international movements, such as Women in Red and Art+Feminism, whose work to increase the visibility and representation of women on Wikimedia platforms has seen the number of pages about women grow to nearly 19 per cent as of March 2021.[1]

This gender bias is perpetuated by the dominance of men on Wikipedia, which are estimated to make up as much as 90 per cent of editors,[2] yet another reason WWW was formed. The group has produced some of Australia’s most prolific Wikipedians such as Ann Reynolds and Margaret Donald who walked through the doors of the library and have been stalwarts of the group and Australian editing community ever since.

Source: Four years of Women Write Wiki – Wikimedia Australia

Melbourne schools urged to stop saying ‘MUM or dad’ in a push to be more ‘gender inclusive’  | Daily Mail Online

  • Schools and sporting clubs are being urged not to use gender specific pronouns
  • Parents are being encouraged to use words like parent instead of mum or dad
  • It comes #SpeakingUpSpeaksVolumes campaign to raise awareness for LGBTQI+
  • Recommendations included: gender neutral bathrooms and flying rainbow flags

Source: Melbourne schools urged to stop saying ‘MUM or dad’ in a push to be more ‘gender inclusive’  | Daily Mail Online