This newsreel segment begins with a title card which sums it up nicely: ‘slums, illegal gambling and SP bookmaking is a real and vital problem confronting the governments of Australia today’. Following newspaper headlines, the …

Pam maintains a relationship with a recidivist, Derek, who is serving a life imprisonment term for murder.

Band members on tour in the Northern Territory discuss Aboriginal law and its implications. In Victoria police arrest Aborigines on suspicion of breaking the law. In traditional Aboriginal law offenders may be speared or flogged …

Archival footage shows Perth’s celebrations when Perth businessman Alan Bond’s yacht wins the Americas Cup. In a speech at the launch of his book about Bond, journalist Paul Barry comments on the rise …

A range of experts express concern that privatised prisons in Australia have increased the available cells in prisons, leading to an increase in the prison population. Interviewees include Father Peter Norden of Jesuit Social Services …

Harry Papadopoulos, a prisoner in Port Phillip Prison, explains how the prison listener scheme operates. He says that some prisoners self-harm or get distressed by upcoming court cases, family and financial matters. Harry says that …

Monica stole cars for the thrill of it. But suddenly she was 18 and an adult according to the law. When she next stole a car, she went to jail. Now she’s a social …

In a publicity stunt engineered by the radio station, a Perth 'shock jock’ radio announcer, Howard Sattler, invited his audience to a rally outside Parliament in 1991 to protest against juvenile crime.

When Sattler is …

Senior Sergeant Terry O’Connell is arranging a restorative justice group to bring the murderers of Ken and Joan’s son and the family together hoping to repair some of the harm done by the …

An Australian invention is set to revolutionise the vehicle security industry and it’s already paying off. A tiny microdot with vehicle identification details is being stamped all over the underside of some of the …

A docudrama-style recreation shows how French secret service agents might have planted the explosives that blew up the Rainbow Warrior and killed a Portuguese cameraman sleeping on board the ship.

A boys’ own moment of truth. A retired French secret service agent is willing to blow the whistle on the French Government and explain its connection to the Rainbow Warrior affair because there’s outrage …

We go 'inside the circle’ to see Circle Sentencing in action. Robert is an Aboriginal man who has been in trouble many times for domestic violence. Now he’s face-to-face with the victim and four …

This is the critical moment when Robert must hear his fate. Although the magistrate and the police prosecutor are there and contribute, it’s the Elders who confront Robert with what he’s done and …

A round table discussion with the chief justice of the High Court, Sir Gerard Brennan, and justices Mary Gaudron, John Toohey, Kenneth Hayne and William Gummow in which they reveal that they, also, live in …

A photographer is lost in remote Western Australia. Constable Charlie Marks and a group of Aboriginal trackers have to find him quickly. They locate the photographer who has a broken ankle.

Euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke says he advises many people intent on suicide. Seventy-nine-year-old Lisette Nigot writes her final letter.

In 1989 Laura Henkel was raped in South Africa. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Laura is additionally hurt that her son blames her for not identifying the man as a rapist and thus preventing the …

A background to the Koori Court system is given over a montage of Indigenous inmates in prison. Rob Hulls recites the incident that inspired him to have discussions with the Koori community once he became …

An explanation of the physical and conceptual organisation of the Koori Court. Magistrate Ann Collins explains the informal process of reaching an outcome. Uncle Kevin Coombs speaks of his role as an Elder involved with …

Henderson (Charles 'Bud’ Tingwell) offers Eric Jackson (Terence Donovan) a proposition – give him two thirds of the $20 million he’s planning to steal from Darcys counting house, or lose his toes, one by one …

In Victoria in the 1850s the introduction of a gold license was extremely unpopular. Although many diggers wanted it abolished immediately, the question of the license could not be separated from more complex questions about …

Drawings and archival photographs depict the events that lead to the battle between gold miners and authorities at the Eureka Stockade. It describes the emergence of Peter Lalor as the leader of the Stockade and …

After the transfer of prisoners in the middle of the night, Mr Norton (Max Phipps) comes to apologise to Jackson (Bryan Brown) for the breaking of the deal. Norton talks about the fear he felt …

As the men prepare for a big lunch of magpie-geese, cooked in the canoes on the swamp, the narrator (David Gulpilil) returns to the climax of the old story. Ridjimiraril (Crusoe Kurddal) and his brother …