The fight to remain compliant: Public sentiment, pandemic and policing the second 2020 Victorian lockdown

Before 2020, the idea that an entire country would grind to a halt with businesses closed and freedom of movement curtailed at a moment’s notice would have seemed a fantasy, but the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally altered the way the public experiences control in a lockdown setting. While lockdowns have occurred around the world, one of the more strict example of this policy occurred in Melbourne, Australia, where a 112-day shutdown lasted from July to October 2020. Such an extensive lockdown begs the question of how compliance with such restrictions over a lengthy period of time is maintained. This article offers a sentiment analysis of online discourse on the Facebook pages of four Melbourne news sources (The Age, 7 News Melbourne, 9 News Melbourne and NewsTalk 3AW) at key points during the second lockdown, to assess attitudes toward compliance (or, importantly, non-compliant behaviours). It shows that, despite media coverage suggestion resistance, the general public largely remained supportive of restrictive lockdown measures throughout the crisis, indicating that it is possible to achieve compliance from the majority of the public in strictly enforced lockdowns, despite the intervention of small-but-enthusiastic sets of anti-lockdown activists

Methods of Inquiry: Police Corruption, Historical Anti-Corruption Experiences and Implications for Contemporary Practices

Historically, establishing a judicial commission in response to allegations of police corruption has been a regular method used by Australian governments. In Queensland alone, no less than five major inquiries with a remit to examine police corruption took place during the 27 years between 1963 and 1989. By using historical criminology, it is possible to unpack the cyclical need for such commissions as well as the reasons that most were unable to realise their goal to stamp out corruption in the public service and, more specifically, the police. This research reveals several key areas of weakness in the temporary inquiry system, including narrow terms of reference and the potential for obstruction in the investigatory process. Based on this, this article identifies several viable policy proposals centred on a renewed commitment to standing anti‑corruption bodies, separate from politics and with a broad remit to investigate police misconduct