The NSW Police Force is still the primary investigator of complaints against itself and its own critical incidents. The lack of independent oversight has sparked serious concerns for the integrity of these investigations. 

In 2016, the Baird government passed the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission Act 2016 (NSW). The Act established the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) as a body combining “the then various avenues of independent police oversight into the one watchdog.” The LECC is responsible for detecting, investigating and exposing “serious misconduct and serious maladministration in the NSW Police Force and the NSW Crime Commission.” 

However, the LECC often merely monitors the police as they investigate their own critical incidents – that is, incidents that involve officers causing “death or serious harm.” 

In response to the rise of a deadly drug and a string of overdoses, the Victorian Government announced on Monday that they will conduct an 18-month pill testing trial with plans to make the service permanent.

Calls are now mounting for NSW Premier Chris Minns to follow suit.

Despite increasing pressure on the premier to implement pill testing, last week's budget included no funding for the long-awaited Drug Summit.

Pill testing is a harm reduction strategy that allows individuals to identify the contents of a pill, preventing the use of unusually strong or contaminated drugs.

Civil liberties advocates are calling for stronger protections after Australian Taxation Office (ATO) whistleblower Richard Boyle lost his appeal to secure immunity from prosecution. 

The former debt collector accused the ATO of aggressively pursuing debts from small businesses, which he said was destroying lives and causing unnecessary trauma in order to meet revenue goals.

Boyle is accused of 24 offences, including using a mobile phone to take pictures of taxpayers’ information and secretly recording conversations with colleagues. He had sought to rely on the Public Interest Disclosure Act, the whistleblowing law for public servants, to shield him from a criminal trial.

The matter will likely now go back to the South Australian District Court, where Boyle is expected to face trial in September. If convicted, he could face up to 46 years in prison.

This week Chris Minns has broken his promise to the people of New South Wales. He has abandoned his commitment to the drug law reform agenda he spruiked pre-election.

In Tuesday's budget, there was no funding for the long-promised Drug Summit. There was no funding to support the harm reduction strategies our communities so desperately need.

It has now been 25 years since the last Drug Summit occurred, and each day without action puts our communities further at risk of harm.

Former Australian Taxation Office debt collector Richard Boyle has lost his appeal against a finding that he was not immune from prosecution under existing whistleblower protections.

Boyle had sought to rely on the Public Interest Disclosure Act, the whistleblowing law for public servants, to shield him from a criminal trial. He applied for a declaration from the South Australian District Court that he was immune from prosecution.

The PID laws shield a person who makes a “public interest disclosure from any civil, criminal or administrative liability (including disciplinary action)” for making the disclosure.

The matter will likely now go back to the District Court where Mr Boyle is expected to face trial in September. 

If convicted, Mr Boyle could face up to 46 years in prison.

“Punitive approaches simply don’t work,” says Lydia Shelly, President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties.

In March, the Minns government introduced harsh new bail laws. The Bail and Crimes Amendment Bill 2024 makes it more difficult for juveniles, between 14-18 years old, to get bail. But tougher bail laws are a “tried and failed” method of reducing crime.

The NSWCCL accused the Minns government of taking a reactive policy approach once again and ignoring consistent evidence that increasing incarceration of young people has damaging consequences. As Shelly commented, “When children this young are forced through a criminal legal process, their health, well-being and future are put at risk.”

Legal experts have cautioned that proposed laws expanding police powers in New South Wales to randomly "wand" or "scan" individuals for knives without a warrant may be prone to abuse due to the ambiguous language of the legislation.

Jordyn Beazley reported on June 4, 2024, that the NSW legislation, scheduled for debate this week, was developed following stabbings in Bondi Junction, Wakeley, and Coffs Harbour. Despite a 20-year decline in knife crime according to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, the proposed laws aim to address public safety concerns.

The legislation mirrors Queensland's Jack's Law, implemented after a two-year trial on the Gold Coast following the 2019 death of 17-year-old Jack Beasley. However, Sam Lee, a senior solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre, argued that the NSW legislation lacks the explicit legal safeguards present in Queensland's law, potentially leading to misuse of power by police.

The New South Wales Legislative Assembly Committee on community safety in regional and rural communities is focused on investigating drivers of youth crime in regional and rural NSW and how community safety can be improved.

Rather than empowering the Government to criminalise more conduct, increase sentences, and more permissively incarcerate people, we urge the Committee to look to solutions which focus on the causes of crime, harm minimisation and creating connected and inclusive communities where children can thrive.

Measures taken need to be proportionate to the need for concern. We should not pander to the public “law and order” demands by some politicians and sections of the media through tougher laws and policies which have historically had adverse consequences. The focus should be on addressing underlying issues that lead to harm.

New figures released on Tuesday show that the number of Aboriginal adults and young people in NSW prisons is the highest on record.

In March, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Bocsar) reported that the number of Aboriginal adults in prison had hit a record high. Aboriginal adults now make up 31% of the prison population.

“To put that in perspective, in NSW, 3.2% of adults are Aboriginal, and one in 29 Aboriginal men in NSW are currently incarcerated,” said Bocsar executive director Jackie Fitzgerald.

“Alarmingly, NSW is no longer on track to meet its Close the Gap target to reduce the rate of Aboriginal adults in prison.” The goal was to decrease the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults held in custody by at least 15% by 2031.

Of the 12,456 adults in prison in March, 3,841 were Indigenous. This rise is not limited to adults, Fitzgerald noted.

Aboriginal young people now account for two-thirds (66.4%) of the youth detention population, which is also a new record in NSW. The overwhelming majority of Aboriginal youth in detention are on remand (78.4%), mainly for offenses like break and enter (29.3%) and car theft (22.4%).

“This is a crisis we should all be outraged about,” said Nadine Miles, principal legal officer of the Aboriginal Legal Service.

“The mass incarceration of Aboriginal people in NSW is the direct result of government policies developed without community input, which allow continued discrimination against Aboriginal people in the legal system.” NSW Premier Chris Minns acknowledged the statistics as a “major issue” facing the state.

“We want to work with Capo [the NSW Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations] and other peak Indigenous organisations to reduce the rate of incarceration,” Minns said.

“That means addressing the underlying causes of crime in our communities.”

When asked if the state’s proposed knife-wanding laws would increase the number of Aboriginal people in custody, he said it was “difficult to say” but expressed hope that it would lead to a cultural change.

We call on the Minns Government to abandon these reckless, and ill-conceived laws and instead, convene a meeting of the Government, the Opposition and main stakeholders within the criminal justice system and civil liberties community to chart a way forward with respect to bail and criminal law reform.

We call on the Minns Government to stop their reckless and reactive policy announcements and commit, like the previous Liberal Government did, to utilise the established State Government law reform bodies such as the Law Reform Commission and the Sentencing Council, to drive evidence based policy solutions.

New South Wales now has the highest rate of adults on remand on record, as well as the number of Aboriginal adults on record on remand. We have officially abandoned the Close the Gap target. The Premier has introduced changes to bail that will see our prison populations explode for people charged with offences but who have not been convicted of any criminal offence.