Kieran Pender

As minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Tony Burke has made it his mission this year to fix the inequity of the gig economy.

Australia’s first successful age discrimination claim could be a lightning rod case for other workers to vindicate their rights.

“Whistleblowers are vital actors in our democracy, upholding our right to know. Without them – and the public interest journalism they make possible – corruption and human rights abuses go unaddressed.”

Journalist Kieran Pender on how the world game found itself defending human rights abuses.

In recent years, it has felt as if wage theft stories break in the Australian media on a monthly basis. Ben Schneiders, an award-winning journalist with The Age, has been responsible for most of them. His reporting – often with colleague Royce …

Jayne Jagot’s meteoric rise to the High Court delivers the first majority-female bench in history and a fresh, compassionate perspective.

“Thirty years ago this week, something extraordinary happened. In two judgements issued on the same day by the High Court, a central democratic principle – the implied freedom of political communication – was explicitly recognised for the first …”

Today, journalist Kieran Pender on the question of who gets to walk free at the end of their sentence.

The High Court has upheld a state law that undermines a core guarantee of liberty and will disproportionately punish Indigenous offenders.

Today, journalist and lawyer Kieran Pender on the story of Diego Franco and how it put the Fair Work Commission at loggerheads with the most powerful court in Australia.

A two-year legal battle between a food delivery driver and the delivery company failed to find in favour of the worker, but may still be the catalyst for major industrial relations reform.

“In early May, the High Court delivered a judgement that further undermines the fragile patchwork quilt of anti-discrimination law in Australia. You might have missed it – Citta Hobart v Cawthorn received little attention with all eyes on …”

With two new appointments to the High Court pending, a controversial case over the constitutional status of Indigenous Australians, and a federal judicial conduct commission in the wings, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has a packed legal agenda.

Today, lawyer and contributor to The Saturday Paper Kieran Pender on the people still facing prison for telling the truth.

“Four years. Four million taxpayer dollars. More than a dozen judgements. Days and days in court – often in closed court, with the media and public barred from attending. On Thursday, it was finally over. The prosecution of Bernard Collaery came …”

Since taking the reins as head of competition for the World Surf League, Sydney-born Jessi Miley-Dyer is barrelling ahead with plans to make the sport more gender equal.

Lawyers and bankers in London have been warned by the British prime minister not to defend the wealth and reputations of Russian oligarchs who have ties to Vladimir Putin’s government. And one of those oligarchs actually has a connection to Australia as well.

A defamation claim by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in the Federal Court has prompted questions over whether public interest journalism is sufficiently protected by Australian law.

Two years ago, the High Court made a landmark decision that prevented the deportation of non-citizen Aboriginal Australians. Now, the federal government is seeking to overturn that decision.

A High Court decision on citizenship, seen as being as important as Mabo, is being recontested in what some experts say is an attempt at an American-style politicisation of the judiciary.

Journalist and lawyer Kieran Pender on the new government legislation that could spell the end of class actions in Australia, and what that would mean for access to justice.

A federal push to change the rules around class action lawsuits will make it more difficult for people to get justice from the courts.

Companies like Uber and Airtasker have transformed the so-called ‘gig economy’ by hiring thousands of workers as independent contractors, rather than employees. Today, journalist Kieran Pender on the landmark high court decision, and the future of work in Australia.

A case before the High Court will determine whether a minister can unilaterally strip a person’s citizenship. The principle in question affects as many as one in three Australians.

Kieran Pender on the trial of Bernard Collaery, and why the government is trying so hard to keep it as secret as possible.

“Secret evidence, secret hearings and secret judgements. Each step in the prosecution of Bernard Collaery comes with another layer of opacity. If it were not so serious, the accumulation of secrecy in this case would be comedic. Secrecy heaped upon secrecy …”

The leaking by the Morrison government of court submissions shows its antagonistic attitude towards the judiciary, particularly in cases related to climate change.

After a major wobble on the blocks, the Tokyo Olympics finally began, offering cheer and distraction to a Covid-ravaged world and the experience of a lifetime to those in the inner sanctum.

With the Beijing Winter Olympics just seven months away, calls for a diplomatic boycott over China’s human rights record are heating up.

In a recent landmark judgement, the federal court has found that the government owes children a duty of care in preventing harm from the impacts of climate change. The case, which centred around the proposed expansion of a NSW coal mine, could have far reaching legal implications in Australia.

As if the narrow time frame between the Tour de France and the Tokyo Olympics men’s road race isn’t challenging enough, Covid-19 puts another spoke in the wheel.

Physicist Peter Ridd was fired after he publicly criticised his colleague’s research on the Great Barrier Reef, but what started as an employment dispute has become a test case on climate denial and cancel culture.

An employment dispute has become a test case on climate denial, cancel culture and academic freedom.

Tens of thousands of athletes and officials are about to descend on Tokyo as the city prepares to host the 32nd Olympic games. But with Covid-19 cases surging in Japan, health experts and the majority of the Japanese public are opposed to the event being held at all. Today, Kieran Pender on the vested interests behind this pandemic Olympics.

She may not have played much sport as a kid, but Josephine Sukkar has always been a keen sideline supporter. Now the Sydney businesswoman has jumped in the ring as the first female chair of the Australian Sports Commission.

In the decade to 2018, 52,396 sexual assaults were reported to the New South Wales Police Force. Charges were laid in 12,894 cases, and 7629 cases proceeded to court. Just 7 per cent of initial reports – 3827 cases – ultimately saw a guilty verdict. …

A tumultuous dispute at Equestrian Australia has seen the government revoke its funding and the Australian Olympic Committee withdraw recognition. With a postponed Tokyo Games looming in July 2021, where to now for the sport’s peak body?

In the face of the government’s inaction on the climate emergency, activists are turning to ‘world first’ lawsuits in an attempt to bring about change.

As coronavirus sweeps the planet, sport has become one of its many casualties. Olympic athletes have been left in limbo, with the Tokyo Games yet to be cancelled.

The Australian Institute of Sport has long produced our Olympic hopefuls. Is the model still fit for purpose, or is an overhaul overdue?

Five years after George Brandis declared ‘people have the right to be bigots’, the government wants that proposition enshrined in law.

Following Anna Meares’ retirement, Stephanie Morton has emerged as Australia’s new track sprinting star. This weekend the reigning world champion races in Brisbane, but her sights are firmly set on Tokyo 2020.

Australian cyclist Amanda Spratt had her best season yet in 2018 – but fell just short of the world title. Can she go one better this year?

Fresh from a historic win over the United States, Australia’s basketballers head to the FIBA World Cup in China with their sights set on a medal.

Once heralded as ‘cycling’s next big thing’, Caleb Ewan was controversially left off his team’s 2018 Tour de France roster. Given a start this year with Lotto Soudal, the Australian sprinter has now rewarded the Belgian outfit with two stage wins.

An early exit from the FIFA Women’s World Cup left the Matildas bitterly disappointed. But for Indigenous goalkeeper Lydia Williams it just offers another opportunity to overcome adversity.

After a tumultuous few months marred by speculation and scrutiny, the Matildas’ fightback against Brazil showed a team determined to prove its critics wrong.

How Mitchelton-Scott, Australia’s only World Tour cycling team, is scaling the heights of road racing.

A Canberra public servant’s anonymous posts on social media led to her sacking and now to the High Court in a free speech case with far-reaching consequences for the federal government.