Done By Law

Local Law 8 Repealed or Not?

On November 24th last year Done by Law spoke to Fitzroy Indigenous elders about Local Law 8 - a Yarra city council provision intended to ban public drinking, listen to the show here.

Last week Yarra Council repealed the law at a special council meeting addressed by a number of prominent Indigenous leaders in the area.  The following day, the council reinstated the law on a technicality.

Meghan Fitzgerald from Fitzroy Legal Service joined us to talk about whats happening with the law, and what some of the provision’s effects have been.

Police Violence and African Young People

On Thursday 18 March , a coalition of Community Legal Services  released a damning report into the police mistreatment of African young people.

The report details the experiences of African young people from three regions of Melbourne: Dandenong, Braybrook and Flemington.

The research found that across Melbourne, African young people are over-policed, including the disproportionate use of stop  and search powers and in some cases extra-legal violence.

Furthermore, the work has found that some of the ‘community policing’ oriented attempts at intervening-  such as community-police soccer games and camps- have not only failed to address the issues, but may in some cases actually be making matters worse.

Tonight we will talk to Daniel Haile Michael, one of the participants in the research and Shane Reside, one of the reports authors.

The research, funded by the Legal Services Board, was jointly managed by Springvale Monash Legal Service, Fitzroy Legal Service and the Western Suburbs Legal Service.

Done By Law on Survival Day

- Done by Law on Survival Day -

Here at Done by Law as part of 3CRs special Survival day broadcast we’re
trying something a bit new – we’re going to broadcast a reading of Maria
Giannacopoulos’ 2006 essay - Terror Australis: White Sovereignty and the
Violence of Law as published in the Borderlands e-journal.

The central contention of this essay, is that Australian law is a regime
born of, and sustained through racial violence. The paper rejects the
notion that there is an absolute separation between the workings of
Australian law and the workings of white sovereignty. Maria uses the
federal anti-terrorism laws, and the Tampa ruling, to bring together two
distinct instances of Australian law in order to show the inextricability
of law and racial violence.

you can find the original Giannacopoulos essay at the borderlands e-journal:

Are we spoiling Human Rights? 3 March 2009

Done By Law talks Carroll Bogert the Associate Director of Human Rights Watch, one of the world’s leading human rights organisations.  She oversees the organisation’s external relations and works on strategic advocacy, communications and fundraising. Human Rights Watch has recently released its World Report 2009, an annual review and summary of human rights issues around the globe.  The Report calls on states like Australia and the USA to put human rights at the heart of foreign, domestic, and security policy. We also discuss the possibility of a Human Rights Watch office right here in Australia.

DBL: Racism Project 17 February 2009

Tonight on Done By Law we interview Shane Reside who, in conjunction with Bec Smith are the project workers for the new ‘Racism Project’; a project auspiced jointly by Western Suburbs, Fitzroy and Springvale Monash Community Legal Services.

The project is designed to conduct research into racism across Melbourne, and collaboratively develop strategies to address issues arising from that research.

Shane will discuss the possible ways that this project will evolve over a period of one year.

We also discuss news in brief with a focus on the social justice issues that have arisen.