Wednesday's cartoon in The Mercury Newspaper: Jon Kudelka helped me get my first cartooning job at The Mercury. He also showed me how to be quick-witted and fearless. I was in a constant state of joke-envy over his cartoons. I'm gonna miss that feeling, but more than that, I'm gonna miss my friend.

Agreed. Devastating news. Vale Kudelka

As they say in the classics, this is a frood who really knows where her towel is: www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/weather...

NSW Bill "abolishing" good character as a sentencing factor (although it looks as though references may still be admissible for non-character purposes, like evidence of contrition): www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/bills/Pages/... #auslaw

I’ll never get tired of this ad at our local indie theater 😂

Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins notes that the average American can save 50% on their food budget by eating every other day.

If you sit on the report claiming that wind farms are a "threat to national security" for a month before taking any action, you shouldn't be too surprised if a judge doesn't think that the threat doesn't amount to much

'But, let’s be quite clear, the routine invocation of “safety” is code for “I don’t want to hear your opinion” ' this does not miss: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

What might be described as a mildly truncated timetable given that the Bill runs to 144 pages #auslaw

And, it appears, less major economies such as Australia

This is such awful news - we had grey-headed flying foxes in our palm tree over Christmas and they are fascinating creatures (even if their table manners could use some work)

This piece I wrote for the Conversation four years ago is still relevant today. Stay cool Aotearoa! theconversation.com/new-zealand-...

I don't recall victim-survivors, or indeed institutions, trying to argue for a veto right over commissioners to the Child Sexual Abuse Royal Commission, but I suppose there just wasn't that much self-entitlement around back then to do so

Grass roots. My @smh cartoon.

"The timing, conduct and terms of ref of any RC should be structured so as not to interfere with ongoing criminal proceedings"- but no practical suggestion as to how that can be done in a timely way. Awful word salad from the Law Council and an awful position: lawcouncil.au/media/media-... #auslaw

Trav should be thinking that he only needs another 395 runs in this Test to overtake DG Bradman for the record in a 5-test Ashes series . . .

It seems to keep working for them. It is just a coincidence there are so many News alum at decision making level of those other outlets

Very disappointing to see the ABC taking dictation from plaintiff lawyers (especially when that dictation is wrong - the Royal Commission expressly recommended against making vicarious liability retrospective): www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12... #auslaw

While in Opposition, Albanese backed the Jewish community against the LNP govt who tried to undermine them by weakening hate speech laws. In govt he’s given them the strongest protections a PM has ever implemented. Anyone booing clearly listens to too much of Sky News or the AJA

Professor Gerber makes a very good point here - we have 18C of the RDA (which Frydenfraud campaigned to remove) so if conduct doesn't offend 18C, why should make that conduct unlawful by adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism? www.theguardian.com/australia-ne... #auslaw

John Howard pushed for the invasion of Iraq, which was one of the dominoes which created the conditions for ISIS and caused untold human misery we are still dealing with today. He refused to acknowledge racism was a main driver of the Cronulla riots.

Here’s an article from this year with the Australian gun lobby boasting that, with surging gun numbers, it was winning the fight against firearms control advocates. Blame guns. Blame anti-Semitism. Blame terrorists. Do not blame everyday Australians who marched for peace.

Re-sharing my article for the Alternative Law Journal on Australia's social media minimum age legislation given today is commencement day ... #auslaw

Hoddle St killer Julian Knight (who I thought had been declared a vexatious litigant everywhere) pops into the Fed Court in an attempt to gain access to the Redress Scheme - no dice: classic.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth... #auslaw

At the park yesterday, there was a man with a dog who was shouting "Flash! Flash! FLASH!" and my immediate thought was "I hope he is calling the dog's name, and not trying to give it an instruction" . . .

Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’

Gageler CJ describes #auslaw judges as "human filters" of AI generated legal argument, a description which could also be attached to legal (and other) academics: www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov... ping @drjoemcintyre.bsky.social

Nice oil-rich country you have here - be a pity if something bad happened to it . .

I am not sure plaintiff lawyers are going to like the Victorian "anti Bird v DP" legislation - if it applied, the one High Court judge who would have extended vicarious liability would still have found against DP: www.legislation.vic.gov.au/bills/justic... #auslaw

WA Govt introduces Bill responding to Bishop Bird v DP - "religious practitioners" retrospectively deemed to be employees, but only if (a) ordained (or similar) and (b) in receipt of cash or non-cash benefits: www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/b... #auslaw

Excellent news here - if my law students won't listen to me telling them that using ChatGPT to do their work is a bad idea, now I can say, "even Kim Kardashian agrees with me" (although that might not be the flex I think it is . . .) futurism.com/artificial-i...

In which Hunter Biden gives the reply in Arkell v Pressdram without even knowing that he was giving the reply in Arkell v Pressdram

Is there ever going to be an interviewer who pushes back and tells him that immigrants seeking asylum is different than insane asylums?

Gotta love Private Eye. Always cuts through the crap.

ACT becomes first Australian jurisdiction to retrospectively extend liability to volunteers (but only for child abuse): www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10... #auslaw

The most pressing task for this afternoon is working out how to convince my trivia team that our team name tonight should be "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got East Wing" . . .

Via @headnote.bsky.social, a fascinating article about the various excuses American lawyers made when they got busted filing cases with hallucinated citations: www.404media.co/18-lawyers-c... #auslaw

Not that there is any shortage of reasons to love @bandcamp.com, but getting a note from the artist when a new CD arrives is surely not the worst part

I was looking for a good example of "the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable" and looky here, it is Andrew Hastie vs Judith Sloan: www.instagram.com/p/DO7oKUkEdS...

This year's Jessup question is out and it is tasty - Art 62 intervention, indigenous consultation in resource development near sacred sites, extradition in the context of double jeopardy, and foreign state immunity for State-owned corporations: www.ilsa.org/Jessup/Jessu... #auslaw

"He was the captain of the team, and he was the captain of the scheme" - dear me, you spend your life looking for poetry in nature without realising that that it was hiding in the Local Court all this time: www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/clayto... #auslaw

I like the idea of restorative justice, but I am not sure that I would go to a CLE on AI and ethics by someone who had been rumbled for handing up hallucinated submissions . . . #auslaw

The sunseeker

Decision here: classic.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sino... (application to bring unfair dismissal claim a mere 919 days out of time rejected by FWC) #auslaw

Corporate appellant named "Invest with Phoenix Pty Ltd" crashes and burns on appeal: www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/199... #auslaw

Often in litigation there are wheels within wheels and fires within fires - but not often are there hats within hats to go back for . . .

Coming up next, Department of War Crimes . . .

If you hand up hallucinated cases, you might find yourself unable to practice unsupervised for the next two years (very significant penalty given lawyer's unconditional apology to judge, and judge's express finding that conduct unlikely to recur): lsbc.vic.gov.au/news-updates... #auslaw

If you are appearing before Gibson DCJ (even as a litigant in person) it is better not to hand up submissions which include an AI-hallucinated "decision" of . . . Gibson DCJ: www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/198... #auslaw

If it was "never about the money", why is Linda Reynolds trying to argue that Higgins' trust was set up to defraud creditors, I wonder? www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08... #auslaw