It was hard to watch the bureaucratic machine perpetrating injustice – Mark Dreyfus must now intervene in the other two cases

Access to abortion is a matter of life and health for all people who experience pregnancy.

At the election, Australians told its leaders two things: we want decisive action to help stop the climate crisis, and greater integrity in our political system. With the most progressive Parliament seen in decades, there is now a once-in-a-generation opportunity to achieve both.

On the first day of March this year, Scott Morrison declared his commitment to democratic principles. ‘My government will never be backward when it comes to standing up for Australia’s national interests and standing up for liberal democracy in today’s world,’ the prime minister told reporters.

The freedom to protest – to gather, to object, to call for change – is an indispensable component of our democracy. Social change has never been inevitable.

The only people brought before the courts over illegal spying and war crimes are the people who helped expose them.

In early October, the ACT Court of Appeal refused to allow the trial of whistleblower Bernard Collaery to go ahead in secret, behind closed courtroom doors. A one-page summary said secret trials erode public confidence in the court and open the door to political prosecutions.

Secret evidence, secret hearings and secret judgements. Each step in the prosecution of Bernard Collaery comes with another layer of opacity. If it were not so serious, the accumulation of secrecy in this case would be comedic.

We live in difficult times. On top of the climate crisis, a once-in-a-century pandemic and rampant global inequality, democratic norms continue to be eroded at home and abroad.

The dire warnings from some about Victoria’s proposed new pandemic laws are mostly wrong or overblown. There are important areas where the bill needs fixing but overall, it’s a big improvement on the current laws.

The sorry saga of the prosecution of Bernard Collaery, an eminent Canberra lawyer, has seen a number of unhappy chapters. His prosecution, for Collaery’s alleged role in exposing Australia’s espionage against friendly neighbours Timor-Leste, is profoundly unjust.

Whilst the special treatment experienced by the British and their descendants ensured their prosperity, the special treatment our people experienced entrenched our disadvantage, economic and social exclusion, poor health outcomes and shorter life expectancy.