Child abuse may be talked about more now than it once was but it’s still a well kept secret for many victims, mainly because telling on the abuser can mean being rejected by their own family. One woman who was prepared to take that risk was Julia Latchem-Smith but she was in her twenties and had children of her own before she decided to tell the truth about her father. As a result her father is in gaol and she has no contact with either of her parents.

It seems that no matter what he does David Hicks is going to make headlines, but the government is determined that he wont make any money from those headlines. Today the South Australian Attorney General, Michael Atkinson, announced a new bill that will be presented to parliament which is designed to prevent Hicks getting any money from telling his story. Mr Atkinson says this bill will close loopholes in federal law which could have been exploited in the Hicks' case. But obviously the story of David Hicks is going to be told, and because people are interested in it, telling that story is worth money… Leigh Sales is an ABC journalist and author of Detainee double zero two, a book about the Hicks case. She and Magaret Kelly, the President of the South Australian law society, spoke about the reasons why this new law could be troublesome.

The New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics recently published the results of its latest study on repeat traffic offenders. The study sampled 70,000 traffic offenders over a two year period and the results revealed that higher fines do not deter repeat offenders. This came as a surprise to the Director of the study, Dr Don Weatherburn. He says the government should look at other ways of preventing repeat offenders other than hiking up fines.

Pine Gap is a mysterious set of white domes visible in the desert as you approach Alice Springs by air. Four Christian activists who broke into the high security US Australian spy base in December 2005 are currently on trial in Alice Springs. One of the four, Bryan Law, says the prosecution is arguing that politics should be kept out of the case , even though the group argues that what they did was very much a political statement about Australia's involvement in the war in Iraq. Activist and former human shield Donna Mulhearn says she draws a direct connection between Pine Gap and much of the 'collateral damage' she witnessed in Iraq.

Well known Aboriginal campaigner LOWITJA O’DONAHUE made headlines across the nation today with comments she made about the government turning back the clock to the white Australia policy. She was speaking at the Don Dunstan Foundation's Inaugural Lowitja O'Donoghue Oration in Adelaide's Bonython Hall.