Past Programs
Law, Crime and Justice - 2007
Balibo 5 and war crimes
22/11/2007
New findings reveal that Indonesian soldiers may have committed war crimes by deliberately killing five Australian newsmen in 1975..... will the outcome damage relations between Australia and Indonesia or is it time for the two countries to move on after 32 years? And how will an incoming government in Canberra handle the coroner's findings?
Abdel Bari Atwan and the history of al-Qa'ida
18/09/2007
Palestinian-born journalist and author Abdel Bari Atwan has finally made it to Australia following a delay with the issuing of his visa. He will be on the program discussing his book The Secret History of al-Qa'ida.
Child Abuse
23/08/2007
Child abuse - are we neglecting a national problem?
Reports of child abuse have doubled in the last five years and it's not just a problem in the Northern Territory.
How effective are the current child protection measures, and how do they complement the criminal justice systems? Do we need a national intervention?
On the frontier
10/08/2007
On the program today we're asking to what extent is Australia still a nation of the lawless frontier? While so much of our national identity is tied up in the outback; these remote areas are also places of disquiet and violence. Does the lawless spirit of the frontier still have an influence on our national character?
Our guests have all been considering the dark 'gothic' undertone to the outback; from the policing of the Top End by the notorious William Willshire in the late 19th century, through to the maverick, gun-toting mania of people like Bradley John Murdoch.
Unsafe convictions
02/08/2007
Miscarriages in our justice system are a matter requiring urgent attention, according to one of Australia's most experienced barristers Chester Porter QC. In this age of DNA and recorded interviews why are miscarriages still occurring? And what can we do to make the system safer?
The Haneef case and the AFP
30/07/2007
A discussion re the aftermath of the Haneef case. Has public confidence in the Federal Police been shaken? What questions does the matter raise about Australia's anti-terrorism laws, the discretionary powers of the Immigration Minister, and the independence of the judiciary?
Judiciary and the government
19/07/2007
The judiciary and the regime. In the wake of the Dr Haneef case, Australians witnessed the extraordinary intervention by the government in the judicial process of the country. What does this intrusion say about the separation of powers of the judiciary and the government? Has the action undermined the judicial system or did the government make the right decision in the 'interests of national security'?
New face of terrorism
05/07/2007
The new face of terrorism -- leaderless, self-recruited and self-organised ... how much of a threat is this new generation of terrorists and how do they differ from their predecessors?
Cold cases
18/06/2007
This program looks at the role of DNA evidence in solving the so-called 'cold cases'. New South Wales police were recently able to solve a 24-year-old murder case using DNA evidence, and the pressure is now on detectives to resolve more than 100 other such 'cold cases' the same way. Yet Australia is still without a national DNA database, and earlier this year the NSW Ombudsman raised concerns over how evidence is collected and interpreted. We look at the debate from the point of view of science, the law, and what it's like living with uncertainty over the fate of a loved one.
TV and courtrooms
25/05/2007
Today we're picking up on some recent discussions around whether we should be seeing TV broadcasts from our courtrooms. Would increased media access to the justice system ensure greater accountability for our courts? Or would televised justice potentially compromise the rights of defendants and witnesses?
Australia Talks Movies: Noise
30/04/2007
Noise is a police drama; an unusual one. It begins with the shocking aftermath of a violent act and it takes us into the everyday humdrum of police routine in dealing with it.
It asks us to think, not how it is that an ordinary person commits a violent act, but how it is that an ordinary person commits a selfless one.
Following Radio National's sneak previews of this first feature from writer/director Matthew Saville, we'll be discussing the film with our listeners and will be joined by the filmmaker and by Radio National's in-house film guru, Julie Rigg.
The David Hicks Plea Bargain
27/03/2007
Australia Talks will discuss the implications of the David Hicks 'plea bargain' at the proceedings of the military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay where the terrorist suspect is a detainee.
How do such deals work and what are the implications of an Australian citizen potentially serving a US military-imposed sentence on Australian soil?
Looking beyond the Palm Island case.
05/02/2007
Paul Barclay begins "Australia Talks" for 2007 - with a discussion of the national implications of the decision to prosecute Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley in relation to the 2004 death of the man now known as Mulrunji Doomadgee.
Not just a Queensland story, what does it mean for legal review, for the role of politics in the legal system, for policing, for trust in public institutions, for Aboriginal deaths in custody . . . all across the country?
Join Paul Barclay - and guests Megan Davies, from the Indigenous Law Centre at UNSW; Assoc Prof Colleen Lewis, criminologist and specialist in police accountability from Monash University; and QC Robert Cock, WA DPP.
