http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/stephen-keim/ Stephen Keim has been a lawyer for 30 years and a barrister for 23. He became a Senior Counsel for the State of Queensland in 2004. He is book reviews editor for the Queensland Bar Association emagazine Hearsay. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kevin-andrews-redemption-seeker/ He made a meal of WorkChoices and cancelled Dr. Mohamed Haneef’s work visa. Yet today MP Kevin Andrews added wanna-be Liberal leader to the list. Was he suited to it? In respect of the visa, Andrews made his decision to cancel the visa two hours after a Brisbane Magistrate,  Jacquie Payne, granted bail to Dr. Haneef because, notwithstanding that Dr. Haneef was charged with a terrorist offence,  Payne thought the case against him was extraordinarily weak. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Keim) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kevin-andrews-redemption-seeker/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kevin-andrews-redemption-seeker/#item1838 Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:00:24 +0000 Stephen Keim | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Its-the-pre-season-round-on-a-Human-Rights-Act/ Unrepentant meddling priest, Frank Brennan, and Federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, must have known that a report recommending a Human Rights Act for Australia would struggle for media air if released in a week when both the AFL and the Liberal Party were engaged in “Trade Week”. However, there is sufficient substance in the 379 pages of the report by Brennan and his co-committee members to still be providing food for thought long after people know whether the Fev for Daniel Bradshaw and Joe Hockey for Malcolm Turnbull deals have gone through. The big news is that the Committee recommended “that Australia adopt a federal Human Rights Act”. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Keim) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Its-the-pre-season-round-on-a-Human-Rights-Act/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Its-the-pre-season-round-on-a-Human-Rights-Act/#item1439 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:55:26 +0000 Stephen Keim | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-sanctity-of-marriage-argument-is-nonsense/ The present political consensus among the major parties against permitting and recognising same sex marriages is so obviously an intellectual surrender to the religious right that one looks for a single phrase rhetorical demolition of this anti-gay pretence of a position that would show it in all of its hypocrisy. I do not, for a moment, believe that those politicians (including speakers at the recent Labor Party National Conference) who go on about protecting the “sanctity of marriage” believe the nonsense they espouse. I also fail to believe that they believe that a majority of the Australian people support the continued refusal to recognise single sex marriages. I believe that the political imperative is to avoid the anger of that noisy minority, the religious right, which, itself, is hardly representative of most people of a religious persuasion in Australia. The political imperative also concerns the possible swing vote of the Family First in the Senate. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Keim) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-sanctity-of-marriage-argument-is-nonsense/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-sanctity-of-marriage-argument-is-nonsense/#item973 Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:35:03 +0000 Stephen Keim | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/assisted-suicide-a-ticking-time-bomb-for-all-of-us/ While the National Conference of the Labor Party has been protecting the sanctity of other people’s marriages (a topic for another day, perhaps), the House of Lords in the UK has been grappling with the complexities of helping one’s loved one board the plane to Switzerland. The case is called R (on the application of Purdy) v Director of Public Prosecutions. Under the Suicide Act 1961, suicide is not illegal in England. However, the piece of legislation makes it a criminal offence to assist another to take their own life. But assisted suicide is not an offence in Switzerland. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Keim) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/assisted-suicide-a-ticking-time-bomb-for-all-of-us/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/assisted-suicide-a-ticking-time-bomb-for-all-of-us/#item836 Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:45:37 +0000 Stephen Keim | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/just-a-reminder-sri-lanka-is-still-there/ For an oppressed group, the opportunity to obtain the attention of the international community lasts for a very short time.  So it has proved for the Tamil community of Sri Lanka. Indeed, the threats and oppression in Sri Lanka extend to anyone who might dare to criticise the government. In mid May, as the Tamil Tiger (“the LTTE”) resistance came to an end and government forces shelled areas full of civilians, the world was outraged and demanded that the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa seek conciliation with the Tamil community of the South Asian island nation. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Keim) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/just-a-reminder-sri-lanka-is-still-there/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/just-a-reminder-sri-lanka-is-still-there/#item623 Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:30:02 +0000 Stephen Keim | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/only-now-is-it-legal-to-be-gay-in-india/ Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code 1860, although drafted by Lord Macaulay, speaks with the coyness of Queen Victoria. It states: “Unnatural Offences – Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life …” A law directed against homosexual acts dared not use words like “buggery” or “sodomy”. The euphemism of “carnal intercourse against the law of nature” was necessary and the Courts were required to fill in the missing spaces. Over the years, the Courts of India confirmed that any form of sexual penetration other than vaginal intercourse between a man and a woman was “against the order of nature”. On the second of this month, two judges of the High Court of Delhi declared that s.377 was unconstitutional. The Chief Justice, Ajit Prakesh Shah, and Justice Muralidhar held that the law would now only apply to non-consensual acts and acts where a party to the act was younger than 18 years of age. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Keim) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/only-now-is-it-legal-to-be-gay-in-india/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/only-now-is-it-legal-to-be-gay-in-india/#item550 Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:25:57 +0000 Stephen Keim | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/haneef-lawyer-let-guantanamo-inmates-come-to-australia/ Like Peter denying Jesus after the arrest, as dawn was breaking and the cock was getting ready to crow, Australia is given a third chance to acknowledge its inconvenient associations. Will we, like Peter, deny any association with or responsibility with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the detainees in Guantanamo? We probably will. We denied our own citizens in Guantanamo until the opinion polls started to turn dirty. Australia, through the support of the Howard government for the actions of the Bush Administration’s war on terror, has as much responsibility for the Uighurs, who were found to have been wrongly detained, as does the US and the Bush Administration. We should accept the Uighurs as refugees and permanent residents. If they are returned to China, they face certain persecution and, possibly, death. To do otherwise would display a flaw in our national character. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Keim) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/haneef-lawyer-let-guantanamo-inmates-come-to-australia/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/haneef-lawyer-let-guantanamo-inmates-come-to-australia/#item185 Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:02:29 +0000 Stephen Keim | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/keeltys-departure-is-a-chance-to-fix-the-afp/ BRISBANE: Today’s news that AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty is stepping down in September provides an important opportunity for the Commonwealth Government to correct the accumulated mistakes of the past. As one of Dr Haneef’s lawyers, my professional focus has been upon his legal rights. The AFP, under Keelty’s leadership, was responsible for many of the mistakes and failures of judgment which so impacted adversely on Dr Haneef and his family. Dr Haneef was in detention for 25 days before the charge against him was dropped. It took another six months and two court cases to remove the threat to his passport and visa rights. Throughout all of this, the AFP, under Mr Keelty, refused to admit its mistakes and continued to attack Dr Haneef’s reputation. It was not until just before Christmas, last year, with the release of the Clarke Report, that someone in an official position was prepared to say, definitively, that Dr Haneef had done nothing wrong. The impact of the actions of the AFP on the lives of Dr Haneef and his family has been devastating. However, the Clarke Report reveals even more alarming concerns about the AFP which the government must address. It showed the AFP exhibited severe organisational problems under Mr Keelty. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Keim) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/keeltys-departure-is-a-chance-to-fix-the-afp/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/keeltys-departure-is-a-chance-to-fix-the-afp/#item73 Wed, 06 May 2009 02:55:44 +0000 Stephen Keim | Author bios | The Punch