How do you hold the powerful accountable? If this week has shown us anything it’s that the government will do anything to avoid having its transgressions brought to light.

Justine Landis-Hanley unpicks accusations of robo-debt victims being intimidated, while William Summers takes on the strange case of Hillsong’s Brian Houston (and the government agencies flouting their own FOI laws).

Elsewhere we see the truth of how the government treats those who embarrass it, in the ongoing prosecution of whistleblower Witness K and lawyer Bernard Collaery. As Bernard Keane points out, recent movements show that Attorney General Christian Porter is dragging-out the fight into a war of attrition.

As always, we’d love to know what you thought of the week’s news. Write to boss@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name if you’d like to be considered for publication.

JUSTINE LANDIS-HANLEY 5 minute read

In the last financial year, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal contacted almost 800 people who wanted to appeal their Centrelink debt. Around half of those contacted withdrew their appeal, a figure that has alarmed experts.

BERNARD KEANE 4 minute read

This week has served up example after example of how Australia under the Coalition is a police state.

WILLIAM SUMMERS 3 minute read

Ministers and officials know that in Australia’s toothless system there are no real consequences for departments that flout their own FOI laws.

SHAKIRA HUSSEIN 3 minute read

Years of racist scapegoating came to a head in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, with a spike in racist harassment and abuse against ‘outsiders’ of all descriptions.

REBEKAH HOLT 3 minute read

Nineteen-month-old Isabella has spent her entire life in an Australian detention centre. Now there are fears she may be separated from her mother.

KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN 4 minute read

Wojciech Sadurski, an outspoken critic of Poland's conservative ruling party, is facing legal threats from both the government and the state-run broadcaster.

BERNARD KEANE 4 minute read

In a remarkable act of blatant denialism, Attorney-General Christian Porter’s lawyer in the prosecution of Bernard Collaery has tried to deny he is delaying the trial during his own application to delay the trial.

CHARLIE LEWIS 2 minute read

Questions are circling about staffing at a new ABC consumer affairs show, which seems to be giving the cold shoulder to The Checkout.

CHRISTOPHER WARREN 3 minute read

The intensity of Australia’s bushfires has lit up the fracture in Australia’s media over the climate crisis, and ended the comfortable fiction of shared values within a traditional Fourth Estate.

STEPHEN MAYNE 3 minute read

After a two-hour insult-fest at this week's extraordinary Harvey Norman AGM in Sydney, it's clear that something needs to change.

JEFF SPARROW 3 minute read

In Donald Trump Jr's Triggered: How the Left thrives on hate and wants to silence us, we see the depressingly plausible prospect of a second Trump in the White House.

JUSTINE LANDIS-HANLEY 4 minute read

Crikey wasn't the only publication to receive a strongly worded letter over the last

ANDREW P STREET 4 minute read

Where in the world is Fraser Anning?