End of innocent until proven guilty

* This refers to a liberal as aperson who favours freedom and equality. Conservative= a person opposed to change and wants traditional values e.g Australian Liberal party


In 2011 the NSW government decided to instigate a comprehensive review of the Bail Act due to its complex nature, the fact that a high amount of young people were on remand (many later found not guilty) and criticisms from within the criminal justice system.

The NSW government asked the NSW Law Reform Commission to report on law reform.
The report was released a year later and delivered it recommedations in 2012. It was described as 'unitelligible' and was very difficult for judges and magistrates due to its contradictory nature.

The last was enacted last year and came into operation in May 2014.

Since May 20 the headlines and comments from the tabloid media have included:

Another bail disgrace
Society loses when accused walk free- the laws are an obscene joke
Comparisons were made with the Victorian Jill Meagher case
The laws are 'buggered' and 'broken'

The result- after a long and comprehensive review and reform process. The Baird NSW government decided to review the new Bail Act from 2013. During this time a number of cases have been highlighted by the media. It appears that an accused person who is an 'unacceptable risk' and then denied bail is not strong enough for the media.

So after a short review by one person (the previous Attorney General) the new law was altered so that now a person charged with a serious offence has to prove that they should be granted bail. In order to gain liberty prior to being found guilty the accused has the onus of proof not the prosecution.

Read the ABC link for more info.

Lets look again at why the laws were originally reviewed.

• Remand has a large impact upon the recidivist rate of those people who are in a prison
• The difficulty in gaining bail had a significant impact on juveniles and Aboriginal accused.
• 34% of accused found guilty in the Local Courts (on remand) were not given a custodial sentence, plus 8% found not guilty yet held on remand
• For children 26% found guilty were not given a control order plus 8.7% found not guilty in Children's Courts (after being held on remand)
• The average period held whilst on remand after bail was denied was close to 6 months.
  
  Questions remain as to why the Bail Act has been changed after such damaging evidence. Politics and keeping the tabloid media happy rather than an effective well balanced criminal justice system appear to be the driving force in law making.
  

Message from an old intelligent guy

Greetings Year 12 Legal punters.
I read this article a few weeks ago and thought that I would pass it on to you. It is from the Head of the Univeristy of Sydney regarding the HSC.

A reminder there is life beyond the HSC

In case you do not wish to read it I will paraphrase a few things for you.

The first and most important for all you is that the HSC is super hard work and requires a marathon effort not an all nighter brought to you by a special energy drink.

Secondly the HSC is not the only path to get where you want to go, it is one method of gaining employable credentials or going to univeristy. It is defintely not the only way.

From a personal perspective I was a little directionless in my HSC (only a couple of years ago) so when I finished I decided to do a Business degree. I missed out on getting into UTS Business by 0.5 of the ATAR equivalent.     Bugger.
My ATAR got me into uni, I then started a Social Science course at UTS and in the second semester I did three Business subjects which I received Distinctions and High Distinctions for and I promptly applied for an internal transfer. Mission successful. 

Or so I thought. The facts are that the six months of univeristy studying politics, Sociology, Philosophy and Australian Constituional law exposed me an incredible world of ideas and people who I had not met whilst at school. Here I was a 17 year old from the northern beaches who thought that arguing with my parents about why I had been sent off from the football field knew how the world worked. All of a sudden I was in tutorials with a mixture of ages, sexual preferences and life experience I could only read about. It was this 6 months that provided the backbone for me later to become a public school teacher with the aim of involving myself in my local community of Sydney and contributing to the lives of young people.

The underlying messages- your intended path will not always be the destination  and many unexpected paths may surface which all require  hard work, being open to new opportunities and a little magic sparkle here and there in order to reach the end of that path.

Enjoy your journey Year 12.

Return of Volatility- $A no longer considered safe bet

The zombies have hit the streets in the US to protest the protection of the financial markets whilst the ordinary citizen receives little support. There are no zombies in Australia (yet) in fact normality has returned.

In what is a return to normality for the $A it has fallen to 95c/US. (this is fall of 13%) Ironically this is due to the concerns with the European markets and failing US economy as investors have dramatically left so called risky currencies for the 'safety' of the US$.
This is despite the solid news regarding the Australian economy. In summary the information that has surfaced in the last week;
# The Trade surplus is the second highest on record at $3.1 billion.
# Building approvals have improved signalling increased confidence in the domestic economy.
# The terms of trade have continued to rise (highest in 140 years) Chinese manufacturing continuing to expand.
# Despite the EU market voting to allow stability expenditure of E440 Billion contagion in the European market continues with Greece close to default, previously Portugal, Spain and Ireland have been mentioned as having financial risk. The risk has now spread to Italian and French banks.
# Protests regarding corporations being saved whilst people continue to lose their jobs spread across the United States.
# News of global financial issues has meant that the RBA is now preparing the market for a cut in interest rates. Interestingly 'jawboning' regarding a cut in interest rates will mean the $A will fall further which will be positive news for sections of the Australian economy.

external stability update 2011

More PowerPoint presentations from Cam Sutton

Disconnected? The Oz Real Economy and US debt.

The global markets have held on for a wild ride recently with the increased volatility connected to the ongoing US debt concerns. Despite the last minute deal that was passed in the US Congress the move by Standard & Poor to downgrade the US government's ability to repay debt to AA+ has triggered an incredible amount of volatility. (see causes for more)
In Australia the fundamentals remain good however the financial marketplace has fallen with the ASX declining 20% since April. The report card of 4.9% unemployment, 3.6% inflation, high business investment in the resource sector and record of export prices compared to import prices (terms of trade) indicates a strong economy. The last quarter did have negative growth (however this was in comparison to the previous quarter) which added to the low retail sales (50 year low) has meant the concern and fear from consumers has become self perpetuating.

In Australia this means that the more people are fearful of the economy the worse the problem will become. As recognised by Chris Richardson of Access Economics

" People always think the markets and economies are the same thing. Markets are reasonable economic forecasters, but they are not economies" .

There are a number of factors which might in future impact upon the real economy of jobs, wages and living standards.

• Firstly the main result of the fall in the ASX will be felt by people about to retire regarding the fall in their superannuations savings.


• The slowdown in the global economy may mean that government policy is needed to assist consumption as exports slow down and domestic spending also slowing down.


• Thus the planned 2012/13 Budger surplus may be delayed.
  


• The RBA may need to drastically loosen monetaary policy. This is linked to the new found stability of the A$. In 2008 when the GFC hit the $A was considered a risky speculative prospect and dropped to 60cents from almost $1US. This time it has falled from $1.11 to a low of 99 cents. The result of this change in perceptions about the Australian currency is that exports remain costly and thus manufacturers, plus other service sectors have high costs and this will mean that interest rates will need to be dramatically cut to prevent the $A becoming an anchor on the economy. (see Help and hinderance for more)
  

Human Rights Assessment

Everyday we see horrific news from around the world where people's basic rights as human beings are taken away from them. A sample at present would include Gaddafi in Libya attempting to kill his own people, no freedom of speech or ability to practice religion in China, civil war in the Ivory Coast, people being held without charge in the United States and in Europe and Australia there is the poor treatment of refugees. By the way if you are interested in Libya or even want to research an issue another good source of information is Al-Jezeera - English.

In order to be able to take action and be aware of your rights the Legal Studies syllabus requires that you complete a case study on a recent Human Rights issue.

The best place to start is the Legal Studies textbook which will give you an overview of a number of case studies and how an evalaution is conducted.

Then I suggest you go to Human Rights Watch (an NGO which focuses the world's attention on human rights violations in order to give a voice to oppressed people and make the oppressors accountable for their crimes.) This site will allow you to choose an issue and will also give you an update on the legal and non-legal responses to the violation.

You should also go to the United Nations website. The link here provides you with access to the conventions and international law which is relevant to your assessment. UN instruments.

Remember when you complete your evaluation you need to make a judgement using a criteria. The criteria is based on whether the human right is efectively protected. (I believe if you decide that the system does not work you suggest improvements.)

Although PEARE is generally good it might not work - enforceability will definitely be part of equation. Other aspects you might like to think about are- balance of standards between nations- that is are all nations treated equally regarding this right, I have added a copy of the assessment task - Assessment task 3 and some information on the development of Human Rights over time. Other useful links- Coalition to stop Child Soldiers Human trafficking .org Amnesty International list of Human Rights Non Government Organisations

How to be a Happy Economist

A mathematician, an accountant and an economist apply for the same job.
The interviewer calls in the mathematician and asks "What do two plus two equal?" The mathematician replies "Four." The interviewer asks "Four, exactly?" The mathematician looks at the interviewer incredulously and says "Yes, four, exactly."
Then the interviewer calls in the accountant and asks the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The accountant says "On average, four - give or take ten percent, but on average, four."
Then the interviewer calls in the economist and poses the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The economist gets up, locks the door, closes the shade, sits down next to the interviewer and says "What do you want it to equal?"

Economists are thought of as people who bring bad news and that their theories do not represent reality- then why do they have so much power?? The reality is that decisions and future decisions involve choice and every choice involves something that has been forgone. (this is known as opportunity cost in economics) Often this choice involves a political decision and a particular group or region will lose or gain which means that as the politicians have to make a difficult decision - economics is often the reason or the stated reason.

Look at the picture and work out how this relates to Economics (try opportunity cost and choice)

So how do you be a happy economist- well by realising that humans are irrational and accepting that despite all the ideas and forecasting that economists are never totally correct.