Author Archives: Andrew Bushnell

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April 20, 2017

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Courting freedom

This article was cowritten with Morgan Begg, and originally appeared in the IPA Review in April 2017.

Since 2013, the federal judiciary has been substantially reshaped, with four appointments to the High Court, along with 30 other appointments to other federal courts. In January 2017, for instance, retiring Chief Justice of the High Court, Robert French, was replaced by Susan Kiefel. Yet few Australians could name any of the recent appointments made by the government. Even fewer could explain their judicial philosophies.

Silently appointed High Court judges have been quietly undermining our freedoms for
more than 90 years. The only way to arrest this trend is by democratising the appointment process. Continue reading →

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April 7, 2017

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Criminal Justice Reform Does Not Start In Jails

This piece originally appeared in the West Australian on 7 April 2017.

The new WA Government has said that it cannot afford to build a new $600 million prison planned by the previous government.

But this cost cannot be avoided simply by letting people out of prison. Criminal justice reform must always be about maximising community safety. Continue reading →

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February 24, 2017

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Four Year Terms Are A Bad Idea

This piece originally appeared on the Spectator Australia website on 24 February 2017. It was co-authored with Daniel Wild of the Institute of Public Affairs.

The election of Donald Trump, the vote for Brexit, and the return of One Nation have all threatened the centre-right status quo, while on the left, throwback leaders like Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn have emerged. All of these movements share one key belief: that government no longer represents the people.

It would seem a bizarre time, then, to propose reducing the frequency of elections with the explicit aim of freeing those same unrepresentative politicians from scrutiny so they can “get more done”. But this is exactly what Liberal MP David Coleman proposes. Continue reading →

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February 17, 2017

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Criminal Justice Can Never Be An Arm Of The Welfare State

This piece originally appeared in The Australian on 17 February 2017.

Crime is caused by people who decide to commit crimes. It is not caused by society. The criminal justice system exists to punish criminals and protect the community, not to fix societal ills.

This is a very simple principle. But it bears restating because it seems to have eluded Rob Hulls in his commentary, published in these pages last week, on our criminal justice report. Continue reading →