More than a century separates them, but the cases of Harry "Breaker" Morant and Ben Roberts-Smith share a troubling echo — Australian soldiers prosecuted for killings carried out in the fog of war, on foreign soil, in conflicts already morally compromised by the powers that sent them there.

Adam Shand sits down with Sydney lawyer Tony Taouk of Magna Carta Lawyers, whose essay in Lawyers Weekly drew a compelling parallel between the two prosecutions. From the chaos of the Boer War to the mountains of Afghanistan, Tony unpacks why applying civilian criminal law to battlefield conduct is one of the most difficult — and consequential — legal challenges Australia now faces.

How do you prove intent when decisions are made in seconds under fire? How do you reconstruct events from 14 years ago with no crime scene, no forensics, and immunity witnesses who were allegedly there when it happened? And when a prosecution feels politically expedient, does it risk creating the very martyr it seeks to hold accountable?

Real Tony's Essay in Lawyers Weekly Here: https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/sme-law/44239-when-the-battlefield-enters-the-courtroom-the-roberts-smith-prosecution

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Victorian police officer Stuart Grimley has seen it all — three years as a Kalgoorlie copper rubbing shoulders with the Gypsy Jokers, stints in Major Drugs and Crime Command and two years working sexual offences cases that left images he'll never unsee. Then, in 2018, he did something most cops never do: he got elected to State Parliament under Derryn Hinch's Justice Party banner.

He lost his seat in 2022 and went back to Victoria Police, where he's now an operational safety and tactics instructor. But Stuart's not done with politics. He's launching the Frontline Workers Party — a new movement representing police, paramedics, nurses, firies, teachers and corrections officers ahead of the Victorian state election.

Adam sits down with Stuart to talk about the psychological toll of child exploitation investigations, the frustration of watching offenders walk free after months of painstaking police work, the $30 million machete amnesty debacle, and why Stuart believes the only way to fix a broken system is to get back inside it.

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Melbourne is burning. A mystery cartel is laying siege to the city's hospitality industry — firebombings, drive-by shootings, bashings at family homes — and nobody knows exactly who's behind it, or why.

Herald Sun crime reporter Seb Costello has been on the frontline of the story, breaking exclusive after exclusive using old-fashioned shoe leather. Adam and Seb unpack what's known, what's rumoured, and what keeps not adding up.

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