May

"The number of New South Wales (NSW) police officers with criminal records has more than doubled over the last five years. Around one in 40 serving officers have committed criminal offences, some as serious as assault, drink driving, fraud and the illegal use of guns. NSW Police says efforts to weed out those who've committed offences are sometimes thwarted by the Industrial Relations Commission, which frequently reinstates sacked cops. NSW Police acting commissioner David Hudson says that police officers ""are assessed on their individual merits and a decision made as to whether those individuals have, those individual police officers have lost their entitlement to be a police officer."" Even though it may be frustrating for the commissioner to have a decision overturned, Hudson says that he can 't comment on the courts ' determinations. ""There is a huge cost to the community of NSW in relation to training these officers and whether one mistake curtails their career, in many instances it does because of the level of criminality but some of the lower levels of criminality, the decision is made for them to remain in the police."""

"Australian and New Zealand employers are to have greater access to respective national criminal history checks for employment vetting purposes. The move follows a successful trial of criminal history information sharing between Queensland and New Zealand. ""As the movement of workers between Australia and New Zealand has grown it makes sense that employers in both Australia and New Zealand have access to the type of background information that is available for local workers,"" Senator Brandis said."

"China 's Supreme People 's Court (SPC) issued a new regulation ""Provisions on the Online Issuance of Judgment Documents by People 's Courts,"" (Provisions), requiring that all court judgments in China be published online in a searchable public database specially set up for that purpose. Under the Provisions, formulated with the aim to ensure the public 's right to information, participation, and supervision relating to judicial proceedings, all judgment documents from People 's Courts at all levels are required to be submitted to relevant authorities for online publication within seven days of their effective date.

In addition, the Provisions provide that real names of the parties generally should be retained to meet the needs of public access to information. These rules are formulated to balance the public 's right to know against the protection of personal privacy. In sum, the Provisions indicate a critical improvement in China in terms of both independence and transparency of the judiciary and the protection of personal privacy."